HYDERABAD: There will be no more manual sweeping of main roads in the twin cities as the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has decided to go for mechanised sweeping by truck-mounted sweeping machines. Of the total 4,500 km of main roads in Greater Hyderabad, roads to a length of only 2,200 km are being swept by machines at present whereas roads for a length of 2,300 km are being manually swept. Soon, these roads will also be swept by machines.
The GHMC had ushered in mechanised sweeping a few years ago for faster and effective results, and also to save sweeping workers from possible accidents caused by rashly-driven vehicles particularly during night hours.
The vehicles, on which the sweeping machines are mounted, are fitted with siren and indicating lamps. Besides, mechanised sweeping is cost-effective. As per an estimate, the cost comes to around `84 lakh a year whereas mechanised sweeping costs around `52 lakh. The machine can sweep at a maximum speed of about 12 km per hour and the average working speed is 6.50 kmph. Thus, in a 10-hour shift the machine can sweep 60 km.
HC says
Making it clear that issue of giving permission to display flexis, hoardings comes under the purview of GHMC, a division bench of the HC directed the GHMC commissioner to take the views of the petitioners companies on continuation of ban on flexis on the listed structures.