The Hindu 07.09.2016
Corporation procures sand-sweeping machines
The sleek hand-held machines will be highly productive as they can be operated even in small lanes, on paver stones and on bridges
There is some good news for the citizens of Temple City. The Corporation of Madurai has procured modern gadgets with which sand accumulated on roadsides can be removed precisely and swiftly.
The sleek hand-held machines will be highly productive as it can be operated even in small lanes, paver stones and on bridges (where, the worker can remove sand and other particles on the holes meant for rainwater drain) without being a hindrance to vehicular movement.
The Corporation had procured five such units at a cost of Rs 2.40 lakh. Initially, each zone (there are four zones) would get one unit and in a phased manner, more numbers would be purchased depending on the requirement, said Mayor (in-charge) K. Thiraviam.
Out of the 100 wards in the city, at least 50 per cent of them had complaints of sand accumulation on the roads, which polluted the stretches, especially, after rain.
Now that the sand-sweeping machines were in place, we would start removing them and try to give a cleaner city, said Commissioner Sandeep Nanduri and added that the new machines could be operated at a stretch, say for instance, for about a kilometre distance and the gadget could collect 37 litres of sand at a time.
The Corporation, an engineer in-charge of road maintenance, said that apart from main thoroughfares like Kalavasal and Arasaradi, Muthu bridge and among other roads and bylanes had been identified, where sand accumulation was high.
Though there were several reasons attributed to sand accumulation on roadsides, the engineer claimed that paver finish roads should be laid as they would not give room for sand accumulation.
“Road contractors should lay the bitumen from end to end as the black topping would not give space for any dust. Likewise, whenever a road is laid, no agency shall dig the stretch as it will not only lead to debris accumulation, but the even surface will get spoiled.
After spending over Rs.55 lakh on laying new road two months ago, where the Regional Passport Office (near lotus tank) is situated, the road has been dug now after sewage complaints.
Yet another stretch, which has always been under repair, is the Old Natham Road. Due to bad road, carriage space had shrunk. The residents complained that the Underground Drainage System was not properly maintained and sewage flowed freely on the road.
When it dried up, the sewage got mixed up with sand and was never removed. This caused unpleasant smell and also posed a threat to road-users as the stretch turned as mosquito-breeding centre.
Most importantly, sand-laden trucks should be penalised or impounded whenever they transported sand without covering them with tarpaulin sheets.
The Teppakulam-Kamarajar Salai was a classic example where sand accumulated on roadsides had resulted in freak accidents on many occasions.
With the sand-sweeping machines in place, the councillors, cutting across party lines, said that the officials should not just confine to cleaning only arterial intersections, but also clean up residential locations.
There
are 100 wards and five machines may not be sufficient to clean the
city. But it was a good beginning and good news in the right direction,
they hailed.
