To switch over from manual to mechanical cleaning of its roads and footpaths, the New Delhi Municipal Council has proposed procurement of two large motorised sweeping vehicles from Germany.
This is being implemented under the NDMC’s ongoing project for strengthening and resurfacing of roads in its area.
Though the proposal was first tabled for approval by the NDMC in September 2008, awarding of work is due to be cleared at the next meeting of the civic body on Wednesday.
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Originally scheduled to commence in February 2009 and completed by August 2009, the project has been delayed by almost a year owing to “tendering technicalities” causing the project cost to nearly double from Rs.4.92 crore to a whopping Rs.8.83 crore. The project is expected to be completed in six months after award of work.
The NDMC’s own staff would be trained by the manufacturers or their authorised representatives to operate these mechanised road sweepers. The procurement of these machines would be done with a one-year warranty including annual maintenance and four years comprehensive annual maintenance contract.
An NDMC official said: “The objective is to put in place an efficient and qualitatively better cleaning mechanism and to upgrade the technology of cleaning roads from manual to mechanical. Efficient cleaning operations can have a positive impact on municipal area cleanliness and general impression about the municipal services in the minds of the people.”
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“This advanced concept is being implemented for the first time in Delhi. This model has been implemented in Kolkata before by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and our team visited there in 2007 to study it before deciding to implement it here. Once the operation of these two machines is found successful we plan to procure six more such machines in a phased manner,” he added.