For years, the Chennai Corporation has been trying to mechanise the desilting of the canals and storm water drains, only to fail repeatedly.
Now, the Greater Chennai Corporation has imported three robotic excavators from Switzerland at a cost of ₹4.5 crore each and work on cleaning up and desilting 30 canals has begun.
“They act like robotic spiders. We have deployed two of them to clean micro canals,” said a civic official. Apart from the robotic excavators, the Corporation is also in the process of importing recyclers from European countries to clean polluted stormwater drains on many of the bus routes and interior roads.
Officials said the use of recyclers will prevent manual scavenging in existing stormwater drains that have been polluted by illegal sewage inlets. The machines were being imported after it was decided to mechanise the entire range of desilting operations using latest technologies used in developed countries.
Previously, the Chennai Corporation was desilting canals and drains only ahead of the monsoon. “The new machines will work continuously throughout the year,” a senior official said.
“There will not be any floating debris on any of the 30 canals. The machines will also clean major canals such as Otteri Nullah, maintained by the Water Resources Department,” said the official. The WRD is maintaining 16 canals in the city.
Training for workers
The city’s Public Health Department will use the machines to reduce mosquito density in areas affected by vector borne diseases. “We will deploy machines in all the zones,” said a health officer. The manufacturer would maintain the machines for six months during which the drivers of the Corporation would get trained, officials said.
