The Hindu                 16.04.2013

Two more sweeping machines for Chennai

Taking into account the need to keep clean the roads of a rapidly growing city, two more sweeping machines will be introduced for around 230 km of roads under the Chennai Corporation. Moving the demands for the highways department in the Assembly on Monday, Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami said that Tiruchi, Salem, Madurai and Coimbatore will also get one machine each at a total cost of Rs. 4.50 crore.

The city already has two machines purchased four years ago; they clean Anna Salai and Jawaharlal Nehru Salai. One of the two new machines would be used on Poonamallee High Road and the other one for the remaining roads that number around 20 and include Walltax Road.

Sources said that tenders worth Rs. 1.39 crore and Rs. 1.16 crore have been called for Anna Salai and Jawaharlal Nehru Salai respectively. The practice is that the department will provide the machine and the contractor will pay for the diesel and driver. The contractor will be paid by the hour and the period of the contract would be one year.

The work includes cleaning using the machine, painting the kerb stones and the median in white and black and also manual cleaning of footpaths, kerb and medians using personnel. They would also have to clean and spruce up the roads before VIP visits.

“The machine can only remove dust off the carriageway. It cannot clean the thick layers along the medians. It will also not work in wet conditions; so cleaning will also have to be done on a manual basis. Similarly, the contractor will also be responsible for cleaning of chutes leading to stormwater drains,” explained a source. The machines are used only at night.

Training centre

The Minister also announced that a training centre would come up at a cost of Rs. 14.16 crore at the Highways Research Station campus in Guindy. Mr. Palaniswami also said that residential complex for Chief Engineers would be constructed at a cost of Rs. 6 crore.