Mumbai: Under the Majhi Mumbai Swachh Mumbai Abhiyan (My Mumbai Clean Mumbai Campaign) that kicked off on Dec 1, the BMC has allotted one litter picking machine for each of the seven zones (250km of road network). The vehicle-mounted machine with a telescopically extendable hose will help clean parking areas, open dumps, beaches and parks.
Currently, the BMC has seven mechanical sweeping machines for busy streets. The civic body is also procuring multi-utility e-vehicles to wash streets, footpaths, road dividers, public walls and toilets, and open spaces under flyovers as part of the Mumbai beautification project. The litter-picking machine has been introduced on a pilot basis.
A civic official said sweeping is being extensively done in a mechanised way, but it’s difficult to clean places like parking areas and beaches. The litter picker machine reaches out and sucks all waste, he said.
Its telescopically extendable hose can suck plastic cups, plates, paper waste, bottles and coconut shells, to name a few items. It has a storage capacity of 1.5 cubic metres, which is emptied into another container. The cost of each machine is around Rs40 lakh and an agency is appointed to operate and maintain the machine for a year. Based on its performance, the civic body will decide on continuing it and increasing the number.
Assistant Municipal Commissioner K-East (Jogeshwari, Andheri East, Vile Parle East) Manish Valanju said, “The machine is like a vacuum cleaner. We started using it on Thursday and will also deploy it for cleaning highways and VIP routes in our ward.”
