The civic body plans to appoint Butcher Shorling, a German firm at a cost of Rs9.2 cr, to sweep the highways with three machines for the next five years.
About 400 sweepers, who manually clean the Western and Eastern Express highways every morning, are opposed to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) move to use mechanised machines to sweep the city’s streets.
The civic body plans to appoint Butcher Shorling, a German firm at a cost of Rs9.2 cr, to sweep the highways with three machines for the next five years. The machines will not only suck dust but also clean footpaths and railings. They will clean the 37.2-km stretch from Mahim Causeway junction off SV Road to Dahisar check post on the Western Express Highway. On the Eastern side, the machines will clean a 22.7-km stretch from the Sion Flyover to the Mulund check post.
But sweepers say that the machines will fail miserably on Mumbai roads since conditions here are different from New Delhi.
“Slums and potholes dot the roads in the city, and even citizens have no civic sense,” says Mahabal Shetty, general secretary of the Municipal Mazdoor Union. Employees allege that the civic body had bought similar vehicles in the past, which are still lying in the dump since there are no designated parking facilities.
Civic officials have ensured sweepers they will not lose their jobs once the machines are deployed. “We don’t use many workers on the highways, so there is no question of anyone losing their jobs,” says MY Chikhale, deputy chief engineer (projects).
In preparations for the Commonwealth Games in 2010, New Delhi became the first city to deploy mechanised sweeping machines in 2005. Delhi officials bought Sweeper Duleuo 5000 to keep the 87-km capital stretch free from garbage.
Apart from sweeping, there are machines that repair roads in case of accidents and other natural calamities. There are also vehicles that regularly wash and paint flyovers and subways and clean roads and footpath.
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