The 13-km long Marina beach is an attraction. Thousands flock to it every day. Naturally, they leave a trail of garbage. Much of the beach and the water near the shoreline have become polluted. Plastic bags and other pollutants have made some parts of beach, especially behind the Light House, unusable. Though cleaning has been taken up time and again by many NGOs, college students and school children, not much could be done to protect the environment around it.
The civic authorities say that over weekends, holidays and vacations the amount of garbage becomes unmanageable. To maintain the renovated infrastructure on the beach front in good condition, the civic authorities have purchased a new cleaning machine from Eureka Forbes Ltd. Introduced about two months ago, this machine helps to keep the 3.5 km stretch of tiled platform free of dust.
Called ‘Ride-on sweeper,' this machine costs Rs. 7 lakhs. It has well-balanced weight distribution. Its controls are touch-less with immediate activation when the driver sits and switches it on. It has a brake and a horn. Called the CS 70 – H model, it can run for six hours a day. Fitted with two kinds of brushes, a cylindrical and a round one, this petrol-operated machine can be used only on dry floors. It has a rectangular dirt hopper on the back, which has a 90 litre capacity and can be easily emptied. The filter surface area is more than 5 square metres. It can clean 100 metres at one go. It is very user-friendly and can move forward at a speed of 9 km / hr. The machine is compact and goes around the entire stretch four times a day.
Workers of the Corporation have been trained by officials of Eureka Forbes Ltd to use the machine. “Earlier personnel from Eureka Forbes used to come daily to supervise the work, but now their visits have been narrowed down to just once a week. But they are always ready to give us a helping hand in times of need,” said a junior engineer from zone VI.
“This advanced cleaning technique definitely helps to keep the newly laid footpaths and platforms free of dust. A team of 10 workers and two junior engineers from zone VI works round the clock (12 hours) in two shifts to carry out the cleaning,” he adds.
One more machine has been introduced to mop the stretch between Light House and Labour statue. Once the sweeping is over, this machine mops the area with soap oil.
The Deputy Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin, along with the Mayor, M. Subramanian, and some of the civic authorities who have observed how the machine functions after it was commissioned, are very appreciative of its performance.
Originally manufactured in Italy by the company COMAC, the firm now has a tie-up in sales and marketing with Eureka Forbes for its Indian operations.
