Vijayawada Municipal Corporation Commissioner Swapnil Dinakar Pundakar along with Deputy Mayor A. Sailaja and ONGC Executive Director Amit Narayan inaugurated a manhole cleaning machine in the city on Thursday.
The machine called 'Bandicoot' has been provided to the civic body by ONGC as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility programme.
The machine is engineered for cleaning any type of sewer machine and costs ₹39.52 lakh. It can be used in manholes of depths up to 10 metres. The machine consists of two major units including a stand unit and a robotic drone unit. The drone unit affixed with cameras will dive into the manholes for cleaning and unblocking clogged drains.
Mr. Amit handed over the machine to VMC officials at the VMC's vehicle depot. VMC chief engineer M. Prabhakar, Corporator P. Manemma and others were present.
