Civic body procures machines to clean manholes in the city

Municipal Commissioner Aninidta Mitra stated that these machines are incorporated with a sensor- based system in the robot that will also allow the user to know the position of the robotic drone unit inside the manhole.

“These bandicoots come with automatic mode by taking boundaries of the manholes initially. The drone unit is equipped with an extendable robotic arm with four degrees of freedom to perform grabbing, shovelling and unblocking actions inside the manholes,” she said.

According to the civic body, also to gain stability, the robotic drones are designed with four expandable legs, with the help of an integrated waste collecting bucket system. The collected waste can lift out from the manhole.

Not just this, the Chandigarh civic body has purchased 24 power rodding machines as well to ensure proper mechanical cleaning of the manholes.

“These machines have been procured under Amrut Scheme and as well as from municipal funds costing Rs 7 crore to adopt the system to clean the sewerage system mechanically and to eliminate the cleaning of sewerage system manually which will improve the living condition, health of the worker,” she added.

How do these power rodding machines work?

With an aim to stop manual cleaning of sewerage pipes, the Municipal Corporation Chandigarh has introduced power rodding machines, Sewer root cutting equipment and air compressors with blower which are technologically advanced equipment and include mini-sewer cleaning machines which shall reduce manual sewer cleaning and management.

Explaining the mechanics of the machines, Municipal Commissioner Anindita Mitra said, “These machines have the ability to cut through tough clogs, including those caused by roots growing into the pipe. It consists of relatively short and well-constructed rods that are inserted section by section through the rodding machine. As they pass inside the sewer line, they rotate a specialty sewer blade to clear away virtually any blockages. Because there is very little slack in each rod, the torque and force is well above that of a typical drain cleaning machine.”

She said that these machines also have a large cutting head that can quickly cut roots right at their contact point to the inside of sewer pipes.

“These machines have a motor that turns the rod as it moves through the pipe. This action can frequently remove an entire root growth in one piece, and in its entirety. This also leads to long-lasting cleaning,” she added.

She explained the features of the rodding machine that include removal of the roots from the sewer pipe, cut the root into smaller pieces for easy removal, powerful suction to remove the root from the sewer system, chop up the root and remove it from the sewer system and flush the sewer system with water to remove any remains.

Are these machines helpful to clear the clogged drains as well, since Chandigarh gets flooded during rains due to less capacity of the drains to clear out water?

“These machines are helpful in drawing out silt and keeping the manholes free of blockages. During every rainy season, the city receives a deluge of complaints of clogged drains from residents. The underground drainage of Chandigarh was built years ago and unchecked dumping of garbage inside drains has severely undermined the city’s capacity to handle heavy rain. These power rodding machines also respond to alerts and complaints which will help the civic body in tackling such complaints as well,” Mitra explained, adding that the city’s sewerage lines routinely get clogged during rainy season.

Rather by rodding the sewer lines, the corporation says that it can prevent various contaminants, including sewer leakages/damage, decrease mould and bacteria growth and growth of tree roots in the sewer pipe lines and avoid environmental pollution.