CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Corporation is set to procure six vehicle-mounted high capacity suction-cum-jetting machines at a total cost of Rs 12 crore for desilting stormwater drains across three regions — North, Central, and South Chennai. Each region will be provided with two machines.
The civic body had recently floated various tenders for the purchase of these machines, which will be deployed primarily to clean closed sections of stormwater drains, that is, the stretches between two manholes.
As per the tender documents, heavily-silted stormwater lines of varying sizes will be cleaned using high-pressure water jets produced by the jetting system. Meanwhile, silt accumulated within the drains, along with debris such as wood and stones up to 100mm in size, will be removed using the high-capacity suction system.
The suction system, operating on the principle of air conveyance, will extract silt and slurry from the drains, enabling more effective and mechanised cleaning of otherwise inaccessible sections of the stormwater network, it said.
Each unit will be mounted on a heavy-duty vehicle chassis with a minimum capacity of 30 tonnes and powered by a diesel engine of at least 300 HP. The design also includes a sludge tank with a minimum capacity of 9,000 litres and a fresh water tank of 4,000 litres. These vehicle-mounted high-capacity suction-cum-jetting machines will come without recycling facilities.
The jetting system will comprise a high-pressure pump capable of generating water jets with a flow rate of 250-300 litres per minute at a minimum pressure of 150 bar. The machines will also feature high-capacity suction system, hydraulic systems, hose reels, control panels, and safety mechanisms, it said.
It may be noted that last year, the corporation had deployed one machine in each region across the city to clean stormwater drains ahead of the monsoon in July. Officials then said that the initiative was part of efforts to eliminate manual desilting. The silt collected during the process was transported to dump yards at intervals of every 25 km using dumpers.