Corporation Commissioner Arpit Jain inspecting the functioning of a road sweeping machine in Erode in Tamil Nadu on Friday.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement.
A ₹62 lakh road sweeping machine inducted into service by the City Municipal Corporation in May 2020 and subsequently remaining unused for several years, following a technical snag, has been restored to service.
The machine, initially deployed to clean arterial roads in the city, was recently repaired at a cost of ₹3.92 lakh. Corporation Commissioner Arpit Jain inspected its operation on Friday night (September 18, 2026).
Mounted on a truck, the machine removes dust, mud and other waste accumulated on roads and along the roadsides. Water is sprayed on the road surface to suppress dust, following which a suction system collects the waste into a six-tonne storage tank, a Corporation engineer said.
The machine can sweep about 4 km to 6 km of road in an hour, the engineer added.
The Corporation maintains around 841.79 km of roads, while 109.98 km of roads within the city are maintained by the State Highways Department. The machine is currently being used mainly on arterial roads maintained by the Highways Department. It will subsequently be deployed on major roads maintained by the Corporation, the engineer said.
Given the heavy vehicular movement during the day, the machine can be operated only during night hours. At present, dust and other waste on the roads are removed manually by workers. Mechanised sweeping would make the process more efficient and save time, the engineer said.
Published – September 19, 2026 05:50 pm IST
