Mechanical sweeping of internal roads to be taken up in Mohali MC meeting

The Municipal Corporation (MC) secretary has called a House meeting under the chairpersonship of Mayor Amarjit Singh Sidhu to discuss mechanical sweeping of internal roads (C Roads), relaying of premix and installation of grills on various roads of the city.

Among the other prominent agenda of the August 22 meeting is the laying of a road near the Jagatpura dumpsite.

The mounting garbage mess in the city and identification of a dumping ground space, however, finds no mention in the agenda.

According to a meeting of the Committee of Chief Engineers of Local Government, an approval has been given for the mechanical sweeping on one side of the internal roads once a week.

Officials said, on an average, 50.57 km will be covered by mechanical sweeping machines daily. “The three-year estimate for the project comes out to be around Rs 3.92 crore. The C roads in Mohali span 303.44 km with a width of 10-12 ft, including channels. If the sweeping is done on both sides, it adds up to be 606.88km. And if removal of leaves with a suction machine is done, the estimate turns out to be Rs 8.21cr,” said an official.

Deputy Mayor Kuljit Singh Bedi said he would oppose the resolution in the House meeting. “The resolution seems to have been brought on the directions of Delhi by the government of Punjab in order to benefit their close ones. It is very difficult to carry out mechanical cleaning of C-roads. Earlier, many shortcomings in the mechanical cleaning had also come to fore on B roads and A roads, which need to be rectified.”

Meanwhile, the garbage disposal will remain the hot-button issue of the House meeting with several councillors registering their protest against the deteriorating hygiene conditions in their wards.

There have been protests in Phase-11, Phase-5, Shahimajra and other areas as RMC points are overflowing on to the roads.

Estimate of construction of libraries in Sector 77, 78, 79 and 80, construction of community centre in Kumbhra and construction of a Dharamsala in Mataur are among the other agenda items.