Mumbai: Each BMC ward to get mechanical sewer cleaners

The machines will clean the sewerages and also recycle waste. Representation pic

To ensure less manual intervention in the manholes, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will spend Rs 254 crore to acquire machines that will clean sewage lines.

The civic body will be buying 24 compact pipe sewer cleaning machines that will be dedicated to operating in each of BMC's administrative wards. These machines will be used to clean the sewerage, which is a difficult job on narrow roads.

The machines will clean the sewerage and also recycle waste. The recycled water will be used for jetting machines. It will make manual access to manholes negligible and cleaning will be done in a more mechanical manner, claims the administration.

The BMC will be buying compact pipe machines for the Island City and Western Suburbs at a cost of R190.94 crore and for the eastern suburbs at a cost of R63.65 crore. The total cost is about R254 crore and each of the 24 wards will be given one machine.

A proposal will be presented for approval at the upcoming Standing Committee meeting. The machines are likely to be used for cleaning of sewer pipes that are 300 mm diameter and can clean up to a length of about 1,228 km. The Sewerage Operations (SO) department has often been instructed to ensure only mechanical cleaning is done in the city after having faced various accidents of workers drowning in the drains and to ensure sewer pipes on narrow lanes are cleaned.

A civic official said, "While we have been insisting on mechanical cleaning, we also had to take measures to provide our employees with mechanical resources which is why these machines will be operational in each of the BMC wards."

S Waikar, chief engineer of BMC's SO Department, was unavailable for comment.

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