The Kathmandu Metropolitan City has sent five officials to Italy to inspect broomer machines it intends to purchase to make the task of cleaning city roads efficient.

KMC Spokesperson Gyanendra Karki said the Ministry of Finance has pledged Rs90 million to purchase the machines.

“KMC will have five broomer machines within a month,” said Karki. He said each machine has the capacity to collect five tonnes of dust including pieces of bricks, pebbles, and plastics. He said the new broomers would be deployed by mid-February. 

KMC Ward-12 Chairman Bikash Dangol leads the five-member delegation to the Dulevo International Company in Italy.

Justifying the purchase, former government secretary with experience in urban planning Kishor Thapa said, “Broomer machines would help reduce the dust on roads, but all potholes need to be filled and asphalted before the machines are used.”

The metropolis deploys 751 sweepers daily to clean roads in Ratnapark, Lainchaur, Bagdurbar, Purano Buspark, Putali Sadak, Tripureshwor, Bhadrakali and other parts of the metropolis.

Roads in Kathmandu are full of dust and grime because of the infrastructure construction works such as road widening and drinking water pipeline laying works of Melamchi project. City roads are full of dust. It is difficult for pedestrians, motorcyclists and scooterists, and small roadside businesses persons to move in such areas without breathing masks.

Mayor Bidya Sundar Shakya has vowed to make the metropolis a dust-free city. Unveiling its 30-point immediate action plan the metropolis he had announced to buy 10 broomer machines to clean the dusty roads. Currently, the KMC has one broomer machine, purchased in 2014 ahead of the Saarc Summit, but the machine is not in workable condition.

The metropolis borrows cleaning machines from the Department of Roads which has four such machines, of which only two are in workable condition.