BMC to import American robot to clean culverts

Mumbai: An American robot will now clean culverts on railway tracks and city roads. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to import a high-tech robot from West Virginia to clean these culverts. Remote control-operated, the robot will keep operators away from the risk of poisonous gases in the culverts.

For proper drainage of rainwater during monsoon, there are culverts under railway tracks and city roads, which are cleaned regularly by the storm water drain (SWD) department. However, due to the short height and narrow space, civic labourers face difficulties in cleaning them.

According to civic officials, the robot will be used from April for cleaning. With its 35 horse power machine, it has the capacity to remove a maximum 700 kg of silt at one go. Due to its small size (height and width only 42 inches and length 120 inches), it can go deep inside the culverts. As the machine rotates 360 degree, it can be used in all directions in the narrowest of spaces.

The cleaning of culverts is carried out by the SWD department in two phases – before the monsoon and after the monsoon. Howe-ver, machines were not used in these works due to limitations. The cleaning work was done manually, which resulted in only floating material being removed most of the time with other material such as silt, stones, mud etc.