51 sweeper machines to maintain city roads

Bengaluru: The BBMP has decided to purchase 51 mechanical sweeping machines for the purpose of making it easier to sweep the city's roads. Mechanical sweeping machines are being purchased with the grant of Shubhra Bengaluru and 15th Finance Commission as per the plan formulated by BBMP officials. BBMP has decided to purchase 24 machines at a cost of Rs 39.43 crore under the Shubhra Bengaluru grant and 27 mechanical sweeping machines using the 15th Finance Commission grant of Rs 44.36 crore. Over Rs 83 crores are being spent for a total of 51 machines.

Organisations supplying mechanical sweeping machines have to maintain it for the next seven years. Instead, maintenance cost of 27 mechanical sweeping machines will be Rs 11.38 crore and Rs 10.11 crore for 24 sweeping machines in the first year. Every mechanical sweeping machine should be fitted with GPS. Roads and footpaths scheduled by BBMP should be swept and cleaned at night. Tender is invited for supply of Mechanical Sweeping Machines. Along with the purchase of road sweeping machines, the BBMP has also started sprinkling water on the roads to prevent dust from moving vehicles on the roads.

For that, a plan has been made for the purchase of 5 trucks with a capacity of 10,000 litres, equipped with sprinklers. It has been decided to spend Rs 4.60 crore for the purchase of those 5 machines, and the company supplying the trucks is being instructed to maintain them for 3 years. Over Rs 1.58 crore annually is paid for maintenance.

However, around 26 mechanical sweeping machines are already functioning in BBMP. Out of which 17 are self mounted, 8 truck mounted and one small mechanical sweeping machine. However, the then Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta had expressed an opinion in the solid waste department meeting held on September 14, 2021 that these mechanical sweeping machines are not technically correct. Apart from that, he also instructed the solid waste department officials to test all the 26 machines at the regional workshop of BMTC or KSRTC. But, has the test been conducted so far? What is the report if the test is done? Officials have no information about that. Therefore, it is suspicious that why they are purchasing same type of machines that were suspected of technical defects by the Chief Commissioner himself.