Tenders have been flated to buy an amphibian equipment, a
mini-amphibian, and three more robotic excavators. As the civic body is
going through a fund crunch, the allotment under the Swachh Bharat
Mission (SBM)
and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) will be used, a source in the
civic body said. “By April, we should be able to get them,” said an
official.

An amphibian is capable of efficiently removing garbage, silt, and
weeds from larger canals and water bodies with a width of 3m and above.
Excavators are used for micro canals that are less than 3.5m wide.

A
mini-amphibian can work well in smaller water bodies with shallow water
level of 1m depth or less. Besides, these machines, the civic body has
deployed trash booms to collect garbage and floating plastic at nine
locations across the Cooum River.

A year ago, the civic body had
procured an amphibian equipment at a cost of Rs 4.43 crore from Finland,
and three robotic excavators at Rs 19.65 crore to carry out dredging
and hyacinth removal in water bodies. “These machines are deployed for
desilting Adyar River and Velachery
Lake, which are owned by the PWD. The PWD authorities are also mulling
about buying the machines. It would be good if they too procure it as
the work would be done faster,” said an official. According to
officials, an amphibian is estimated to cost around Rs 7.5 crore, a
mini-amphibian and a robotic excavator costs around Rs 1.7 crore and Rs
6.5 crore respectively.