The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has taken a leap in terms of the sanitation by acquiring state of the art robot capable of scavenging the sewers in the city. The pilot project aims to eradicate manual scavenging which has been rampant in Gurgaon. Gurgaon News
Despite ban on the manual scavenging, it is presently widely practised in the city. The pilot project was inaugurated by the Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar at the PWD rest house.
The robot, capable of doing scavenging, was designed by IITians from Kerala. The robot is called Bandicoot 2.0. As of now, only one robot was procured.
MCG Commissioner Yashpal Yadav speaking to TOI said, “We banned the manual scavenging as it is inhuman practice. The robots will solve this problem as they are capable of clearing the waste mechanically.”
He also mentioned that strict action under law will be taken against the people who were found facilitating manual scavenging.
The older version of robot, Bandicoot, was already tested at the some municipalities of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It was developed by Kerala-based Genrobotic Innovations Private Limited.
The robot was also inspected by the CM during the inauguration of the project. Incidentally, the MCG has become the first municipality in North India to bring in robot for the purpose of scavenging.
As per the officials, the introduction of robot will also give a boost to the schemes such as Make In India, Swachh Bharat and Start Up India.
