PATNA: Roads in the city will soon be spick and span with the help of truck-mounted sweepers with water spraying machine and vacuum cleaning system.

The Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) has procured seven such sweeper trucks from Italy and Turkey at a cost of Rs 11.75 crore to remove dust particles from city roads and control pollution.

The Bihar State Pollution Control Board had recently recommended regular sweeping of roads in view of the alarming level of air pollution in the city. Dust particles (38%), emanating from damaged roads and ongoing construction works, are responsible for the high PM 2.5 levels (particulate matter less than 2.5 microns).

According to experts, the city’s air quality is expected to improve significantly with the help of the sweeper trucks.

“While three sweeper trucks have been imported from Italy’s Dulevo International for Rs 1.45 crore each, the remaining four have been purchased from Turkey’s Ceksan Sweepers at a cost of Rs 1.85 crore each,” PMC additional commissioner D P Tiwary told this newspaper on Monday.

A trial run of both the machines was carried out by the civic body in the New Capital Circle (NCC) in the presence of mayor Sita Sahu and PMC commissioner Anupam Kumar Suman on Saturday last. The machines, which can clean up to 20kg of dust in one go, took almost 35 minutes to clean the stretch from Satmurti to Bailey Road.

Tiwary said, “The state-of-the-art machines have fine brushes, ranging from 1,300mm to 3,500mm, which can clean all corners. Since they are highly sophisticated, we have decided to monitor them from the PMC headquarters, instead of deploying them under the circle’s executive officers.”

The PMC has also decided to hire credible agencies to look after the operation and maintenance of the trucks and initiated the process of floating tender for the purpose.

At present, similar sweeping machines are functional in cities like Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Lucknow and Hyderabad.

