Mechanical sweepers for Bellary Road

27 January 2008 - 2:51pm — silkboard

Hope you heard about BBMP planning to employ Mechanical Sweepers for Bellary Road (Hebbal Flyover to Airport entrance). When I saw the document with work details (See page 15 here), I was thinking about how the winning bidder will manage to accomplish all that BBMP wants.

First of all, I don't know why the Mechanical Sweeper thing is getting so much importance. Read some lines below:

a) Sweeping of the roads (including service road) by deploying mechanical sweepers ...
b) Manual mopping of the roads for any residual silt on the roads after mechanical sweeping
c) Manual cleaning of road (incl service road) by deploying adequate good healthy labors (Age b/n 20–40 yrs) in Two Shifts (i.e. 6 AM to 2 PM and 2 PM to 10 PM) on a daily basis .
d) Cleaning of kerbs, shoulder drains and sidewalks of the roads

So, they would anyway be employing 'healthy' manual labor for items b, c and d. I dont see a reason why BBMP has to spell out how exactly the cleaning service provider should do its job - mechanically or manually. This (item #g) is perhaps the only thing BBMP needs to state as the requirement:

g) The Service Provider shall ensure that the roads identified under the Package are kept and maintained clean and litter-free throughout the day .i.e.24 hours.

I will also like to know what help will BBMP and others (Police?) provide towards doing this:

i) The service provider shall maintain the storm water drains free of garbage, paper, plastic.

Can service provider impose and collect fines from road users (drivers, pedestrians) who litter the road? Can service provider enforce a litter free zone on the shops and businesses along Bellary road? Or is the service provider merely required to collect and clean all that you and me will happily dump on the road?

Another item - listed as a condition - that caught my attention was:

The Service Provider shall ensure that the noise levels of the vehicles deployed for mechanical sweeping and for transportation of the collected MSW shall conform to the ambient standards prescribed by the National Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000.

Wonder how many existing vehicles (read auto-rickshaws) meet these standards. Does BBMP monitor noise pollution levels today? Will they be monitoring the mechanical sweepers as well?

Thats all on this one. I didn't mean to criticize good intentions of BBMP in keeping Bellary Road clean, but was only trying to understand this RFP/tender document and how things might work.

Comments

dust & gravel

tsubba - 28 Jan 2008 - 9:09pm

clearing dust on the gravel will yield atleast half a lane worth of road space on most of the city streets and also improve safety at turnings and crossings. given the length of the roads, mechanical sweepers is the only sustainable way forward. palike will also do better to id the sources why the dust accumulates in the first place. one of the reasons is poor drain angles on road surfaces.

Harder job than it should be

silkboard - 30 Jan 2008 - 3:13pm

Tarle, the point is, without any authority to - penalize those who make it dirty in the first place - alter structure of the road and surroundings - open drains that invite trash, drain angles, metal grill covered openings on road edges that empty water to the the drain. - control usage of road the job of keeping the road will be lot harder and expensive than it should be.

sweepers and scavengers

blrsri - 30 Jan 2008 - 4:37pm

The first thought that came to mind whent this post came up was, 'why this? dont we have human resource to do it' afterall we are one of the most populous countries and such tasks can be done by humans.. But then I thought 'would I do it'.. The answer was 'no' and that means I cannot expect others to do it too! So its not just Bellary road that will need the mechanical sweepers..its infact all the roads in Bangalore. The other thing is about the scavengers..I should say they do a great job by sifting through garbage to recycle..but then they do that in the most unhygenic enviroments..often kids with bare hands..very sad.. As starters we can sort the trash at home itself..recyclable or not.

sweepers & scavengers (continued)

ssheragu - 4 Aug 2008 - 5:49pm

Hello blrsri

you can't be more right than this. as you said

1 mechanical sweepers not only for whole of Bangalore but for whole of Karnataka;

2. where mechanical sweepers can't be provided, human reources can be used; but first & foremost they should not be called Scavengers but HEALTH INSPECTORS.

3. These HEALTH INSPECTORS should be be given a basic salary not less than Rs 5000 considering their work & health hazard; They shoud be given gloves, rubber boots and plastic overalls to be compulsorily worn during cleaning.

4. They shoudl be gven AC transport for them to commute from their work place to office

5. Their offices should look like IT hubs

6. These illiterates should be made to got to schools in the evenings

7. as you have suggestd everyone should mandatorily start sifting trash at home into recycalable, plastics etc.

these are some of my sugggetsions to start with

Srinath Heragu

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