2 more snow robots for Shimla to keep city roads motorable

Tribune News Service

Sameer Singh

Shimla, January 6

As part of the preparations for the snowfall season ahead, the Shimla Municipal Corporation has purchased two snow robots for removal and clearance of the snow from roads. With the recent purchase of two snow robots, the MC has total four robots now.

“Purchased under the Smart City project, the cost of these two snow robots is around Rs 80 lakh. These snow robots will be instrumental in clearing roads off snow, especially interior or arterial roads, where large machines such as JCB cannot penetrate. Apart from snowfall, these robots will also be helpful to remove debris during monsoon season,” MC Joint Commissioner Bhuwan Sharma said.

These new machines have been stationed at parking facility at Tuttikandi and as per the snowfall predictions, they would be moved to more snow-prone areas or wards in the city. Earlier, with only two robots at disposal of the corporation, the snow clearance from connection or congested roads used to take a lot of time.

“There are many roads in the interiors of the city including Jakhu, Sanjauli, Kanlog and Benmore among other areas where JCB machines cannot reach. As a result, workers had to be deployed there, but snow clearance used to become a laborious and time-consuming exercise. But now with these new addition of snow robots, the clearance of roads would be done in a matter of minutes,” added Sharma.

Meanwhile, in a first to prevent ice formation after snowfall, the PWD will use calcium chloride in the state capital as well as the higher reaches of Kinnaur, Lahaul Spiti, Kullu and Chamba to avert major road mishaps. The experiment will initially be taken up as a pilot project in Shimla so as to ensure smooth flow of traffic and safety of pedestrians after snowfall during the winter months.

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