Civic body all set to buy five more sweeping machines

With an aim to make the city spic and span in days to come, the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation (MC) is all set to buy five more sweeping machines. These will sweep the city during night hours when the vehicular traffic is less.

With this, the total number of machines with the civic body will reach 10. Mechanical sweeping was introduced in the city as manual sweeping leads to heavy dust flow.

At present, the Municipal Corporation has five sweeping machines. It got one under the Swachh Bharat Mission, four under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) and five more are expected to reach the city under the programme.

Mechanical sweeping is being taken up on the directions of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to curb air pollution in the city. It is done at night, between 10 pm to 10:30 pm when the traffic is minimal. Mechanical sweeping is preferred as manual sweeping results in emission of dust particles in the air.

“The MC is planning to buy five more machines under the NCAP and with that all major city areas will come under mechanical sweeping and it will help in bringing down the PM10 level,” said an official from the civic body.