Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation Introduces Robotic Manhole Cleaning System

Taking a step towards self-reliance, the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation (CSMC) has installed a vehicle-mounted manhole-cleaning robotic system. The system will clean the manhole with the help of a robot, and no manual cleaning will be needed henceforth, said administrator G Srikanth.

On the occasion of Maharashtra Day and International Labour Day on May 1, the system was dedicated to public utility by the administrator. Additional Municipal Commissioner Ranjeet Patil, City Engineer AB Deshmukh, Executive Engineer Amol Kulkarni, employees, and residents were present in large numbers.

Earlier, a few accidents were reported in the city in which labourers died and were injured while cleaning manholes in the city. The manholes needed to be cleaned by manual workers by entering them. They are often filled with poisonous gases, which pose a severe threat to the lives of the labourers.

Presently, CSMC has a fleet of jetting machines, vacuum machines, desilting machines, and power rodding machines for cleaning the drainage system and manholes in the city. Now, the vehicle-mounted manhole cleaning robotic system has been included, which has taken CSMC one step ahead to become self-reliant. A camera is used in this system, which accurately finds out the choke-up space in the manhole chamber, and the machine clears it within a few minutes. A modernised robot is used in this system for the cleaning purpose.

The drainage system and the manhole chambers are cleaned with the help of robots under the Union Government’s clean survey project.

The vehicle-mounted manhole cleaning robot has been purchased by implementing a tender process. After completing the tender process, the tender was given to Genrobotic Innovations Pvt Ltd, and two machines with a maintenance period of one year for ₹2.09 crore, the sources informed.

The robotic system has been mounted on the chassis of Ashok Leyland's Bada Dost. This system can clean the manhole chamber up to 8 metres deep and 1.5 metres.