Five mechanized dust sweeping machines purchased at a cost of Rs 2.5cr in 2019 and lying unused since the imposition of lockdown in March 2020 will now be used from next week to tidy up the streets ahead of Durga Puja.

The Dhanbad Municipal Corporation (DMC) has decided to issue a letter to Pay and Clean, the operating agency for mechanized sweepers, to run all five machines in a day or two and resume operations from next week.

These include three truck-mounted large machines and two tipper-mounted small machines.

Uday Kachhap, DMC assistant engineer, who is in charge of the transport department said the five dust sweeping machines were lying unused during the lockdown as since they were focussing on the sanitisation of containment and high-risk zones in view of the Covid pandemic.

“Though it will incur extra costs for us, we will manage the same with a gradual increase in the revenue,” said Kachhap.

Talking to The Telegraph Online, Huban Mallick, director Pay and Clean, said, they had a meeting with municipal commissioner Satyendra Kumar, who was quite positive about the relaunch.

“A fund crunch is the major issue affecting the smooth of operation of the machines, as none are working in full capacity. If allowed to run in full capacity the town will have an altogether different look,” said Mallick.

He said as per the agreement, each machine has to operate for 40km per day but none of the machines were operating for more than 20km during the operational phase also.

“Ever since we began operation during December last year, we could not operate for more than four months with a restricted capacity of two or three vehicles, since all five machines were seldom operated simultaneously,” he said.

High fuel and maintenance cost is major hurdle with regard to regular operation of the sweepers.

Funding of around Rs 20-25 lakh per month is required for the unhindered operation of the machines. Due to non-allocation of separate funds for purpose, the vehicles are not operating regularly.