Electric sweeping machines to keep Ahmedabad city dust-free

With an aim to make the city dust-free, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) will start cleaning streets of two zones with newly-purchased machines from next month. The operation will begin from the North-west and the South-west zones. To achieve this target, the civic body will acquire electrical sweeping machines.

"We are planning to have mechanical night cleaning in two zones. The sweeper machines will clean the roads during the night. We will extend the same model in other zones if the project is successful," said Vijay Nehra, municipal commissioner, AMC.

Currently, some of the wards have manual night cleaning. However, after adopting the new model, the civic body will make use of its manpower. "The sanitation workers have started cleaning streets at Jodhpur, Bodakdev and several other pockets of the new west zones during the night," said an AMC official.

Interestingly, this system is being im[plemented at several places including Surat. However, according to an environmentalist, the system is just another tool for corruption.

"I doubt the intention of purchasing the cleaning machines. We are not living in a western country where cleaning and washing roads could be possible. Purchasing machines are a blind expense," said Mahesh Pandya, environmentalist. "Do we have wall-to-wall roads? Or do we have green carpet that dust can't be produced? No. There is no solution of making the city dust-free," Pandya said.