Aurangabad, April 24:
The Aurangabad Smart City Development Corporation Limited (ASCDCL) has purchased three road-cleaning machines of total valuing about Rs 1 crore, for Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), under the Smart City Project. The value of each machine is around Rs 33 lakh and after passing the vehicle-mounted machines from the RTO office, it will be pressed on the task from the next week.
Till a few years ago, Aurangabad was denoted as the 'city of potholes'. Later on, the state government, released funds of Rs 24 crore, Rs 100 crore, and Rs 152 crore in three different phases. The AMC and other agencies utilised the money for the construction of six roads, 32 roads, and 23 roads respectively in three phases. The majority of the roads are of cement concrete and only a few are tar roads. The AMC was having a big size road cleaning machine in its depot. Hence the civic administration proposed to buy three new small-size machines to clean the city roads through the Smart City fund as it is reeling under a financial crunch for the past many years.
The cost of each machine is Rs 32.75 lakh and the total cost of the three machines is Rs 98.85 lakh. After completing the process of passing the vehicle-mounted machines from the RTO office, it will be seen on city roads from next week, said the deputy engineer (mechanical section) D K Pandit.
Pandit underlined that the state government had ordered the AMC to take adequate measures to control the growing pollution threat in the city. After cleaning the roads through the machines, the presence of dust particles in the air would be less in the city. These machines are small and will be able to clean the bylanes as well.