The Telangana Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department (MA& UD) has directed the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) to ensure that the proposed purchase of modern sanitation machines, including sewage cleaning ones, is completed and are ready for use by the Independence Day of August 15 this year to put a full stop to the manual scavenging or cleaning of drains across the State.
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Commissioner and Director of Municipal Administration N. Satyanrayana in a recent communication to the municipal commissioners concerned pointed out that MA & UD Minister K.T. Rama Rao had instructed that suitable measures be taken to prevent manual cleaning of the sewers and open drains in any of the urban areas through use of modern machines.
The machines chosen to be procured are ‘Hydrovac machines, grabbers, septic tank cleaning vehicles, sewer inspection cameras, hydro jetting machines, power bucket machines, hydraulic sewer root cutters, power rodding apparatus and the likes.
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"Cost of each modern sanitation vehicle ranges from ₹7-₹8 lakh and can go up to to ₹50-₹70 lakh depending on the purpose and type of vehicle. For solid waste, cities may require auto trippers, transfer vehicles, dumper placer lifting compactors etc. For sewerage cleaning, cities require vacuum suction and drainage desilting vehicles for all municipal bodies," said Mr. Satyanarayana.
For cities with sewerage network, vehicles such as power rod, sewer inspection camera mounted on vehicles, sewer jetting machine etc are also required. The number of vehicles and kinds will be calculated based on areas served, location of plants and amount of waste generated by the engineering wing under the guidance of public health engineering-in-chief for necessary sanctions, he said.
The vehicles have been chosen as per the Central Public Health & Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO) approved specifications. These machines are designed to remove accummulated silt upto a depth of 20 ft without the need for a worker to enter the drain through suction, water pressure, buckets, etc. The camera aided machines too will aid in estimating the silt underneath for removal, said senior municipal officials.
The beneficiaries of those running the machines are to be chosen out of the State government’s ‘Dalit Bandhu’ scheme or the National Safai Karmacharis Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFC), they added.