The City Corporation conducted a trial run with cleaning equipment manufactured by Roots Group at Sivananda Colony here on Thursday. This was to explore possibilities of using mechanised equipment to clean the roads instead of manual labour.
The trial run was conducted in the presence of Mayor P. Rajkumar, and officials from the Corporation. Removal of mud and dust from the roads is now being done manually by Corporation workers. “It is a laborious and time consuming process,” said the Mayor. Motorists often have to navigate around mud accumulated close to the centre medians that reduces the motorable area and increases the risk of two-wheeler riders skidding on the road. Mechanised cleaning would help especially during the rains, he said.
The corporation is planning to conduct similar trials in others parts of the city too. Representatives of the company said that the machine is mounted on the truck and has two side brushes that will gather in dust and mud from either side of the road to the centre from where it is sucked in by a hose. Sprinklers are also attached. The mechanised equipment is capable of cleaning six kilometres in one hour. A suction hose capable of pulling in small stones and waste from places where the truck cannot reach is also part of the cleaning kit. Hyderabad Corporation has acquired two such kits from Roots five years ago to clean their city roads.
There was another demonstration of a diesel-operated sweeping machine to clean narrow roads, platforms and foot paths.
Chairman of Roots Group K. Ramasamy and the Managing Director of Roots Multiclean Limited R. Varun Karthikeyan were also present during the demonstration.
