Bengaluru: With summer heat intensifying across the city despite sudden evening showers, dust has emerged as a major concern for commuters and residents. Six months after deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar announced that Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) would rent 56 mechanised sweeping machines at a cost of Rs 613 crore, no new machine has been deployed on the ground.All five city corporations were instructed to float tednders and procure the machines on rent, with the total cost divided among them. However, the process remains stuck in the tendering stage, and machines are unlikely to be procured anytime soon.Inputs from Bengaluru West, East, Central, South and North corporations indicate that tenders have run into multiple hurdles. In West, only one bidder participated, and officials are exploring options to attract more bidders. In Central, the first round of bidding saw no participants, prompting authorities to reissue the tender.In East, the tender process is still at technical evaluation stage. North corporation, meanwhile, has failed to attract bidders even in its second attempt and is preparing to issue a third tender. “We have very clear guidelines on how the tender should work, and we can’t compromise on them. That is the reason we are proceeding with a third tender call,” said Pommala Sunil Kumar, commissioner of Bengaluru North City Corporation.South corporation has managed to get through the tender, and the process is in the final stages, but the corporation is yet to reveal details of how many machines it will be renting.Inadequate & outdated All five city corporations continue to rely on their limited and ageing fleet of cleaning machines. West corporation has only two machines — one truck-mounted and one self-propelled — in use, which cover select road stretches on a rotational basis.Central corporation has one machine per assembly constituency, totalling five. “These are clearly insufficient, and their condition is not fit to handle the dust and dug-up silt accumulated on the roads. While we recognise this as a serious issue, we had to recall the tender because of zero participation,” said Daljeet Kumar, additional commissioner.The situation is more challenging in east Bengaluru, where ongoing drain and footpath works have led to increased silt accumulation. “We’re operating with old sweeping machines, and have got one new one through CSR funding,” said Lokhande Snehal, additional commissioner.North corporation has procured 33 mini-sweeping machines and 15 blowing machines at a cost of Rs 10 lakh. “We are managing with these machines, but they are not sufficient. We also have four old mechanical sweepers, which are functional but not efficient. It is becoming difficult to effectively clean the roads,” an official said.Maheshwar Rao, GBA chief commissioner, said the push for mechanised sweeping was also aimed at ensuring worker safety. “We do not want pourakarmikas to manually clean arterial roads, as it is risky. While corporations are handling tenders individually, we are hopeful that machines will be deployed soon,” he said.
