Pune Municipal Fleet Gets Four Advanced Road Sweeping Machines; Footpaths, Cycle Tracks, Dustbins, And Dividers to be Cleaned Too

Pune, July 12, 2025: Four advanced road sweeping machines have been added to the Pune Municipal Corporation’s fleet to enhance the city’s cleanliness. These vacuum-operated road sweeper machines have been developed in accordance with the guidelines of the Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organization. These machines are equipped to clean not just roads but also footpaths, cycle tracks, dustbins, dividers, and street furniture simultaneously.

The machines were inaugurated by Municipal Commissioner Naval Kishore Ram. Present at the event were Additional Commissioners Prithviraj B.P and Omprakash Divate, Deputy Commissioner of Solid Waste Management Sandeep Kadam, as well as SI, DSI, and engineers from the Solid Waste Department, and Deep Singh from Global Waste Management. The civic body plans to use a total of 12 road sweeping machines to keep the city clean, with four of these machines beginning operations from Friday night.

Considering the city’s expanding population and geographical area, the municipal corporation has decided to adopt mechanized road sweeping. With the inclusion of newly merged villages, the area under Pune Municipal Corporation has increased to approximately 516 sq. km, and the population has reached around 7 to 8 million. As per central government guidelines, road sweepers are mandatory for roads wider than 18 meters to help reduce dangerous particulate matter (PM 2.5 and PM 10) in the air. The Solid Waste Management Department has floated four zone-wise tenders for seven years for the cleaning of roads in Zones 1 to 4 using mechanical road sweepers on a rental basis.

Details of the Operations:

These vacuum-operated road sweepers will function across zones. In each zone, three routes of 10 km length each have been designated. The machines will cover both sides of road dividers and footpaths, cleaning a total of 40 km per zone. The tenders also include provisions for cleaning pedestrian pathways using advanced pavement sweepers and leaf blowers.

Each route will have:

* 1 mechanical road sweeper machine

* 11 workers

* 2 pavement sweepers

* 2 leaf blowers

* 1 grass cutting machine

* 1 jetting machine

* 1 mini tipper (CNG “Chhota Hathi”)

The contractor will be responsible for transporting the collected dust and debris to the dumping station. High-pressure washer machines will also be used to clean street furniture and related infrastructure. This cleaning operation will be carried out between 10 PM and 6 AM, covering footpaths, cycle tracks, dustbins, divider grills, and street furniture. A deep cleaning of 40 km of roads will be done daily, with larger roads cleaned four times on both sides.

About the Machines:

The mechanical sweeping machines are equipped with a 6.5 cubic meter waste hopper and a 3,000-litre water tank. Washers and sprinklers will operate one hour prior to manual cleaning to reduce dust levels and enhance cleaning efficiency. According to the municipal administration, this initiative will significantly improve the cleanliness of Pune’s roads. Following the guidelines of the Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organization, systems that vacuum dust are considered more effective than those that blow dust away. The use of water sprinklers and jetting systems ensures that dust and dirt are suppressed on the ground rather than dispersing into the air.