KATHMANDU, March 26: Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has splurged a whooping Rs 108 million on five Italian-made street sweeping vehicles (or broomers) to fight dust pollution in the  capital city. The five broomers are set to be launched into use amidst a function at  Rastriya Sabha Griha, Tuesday.

The metropolis had planned to buy six such vehicles in the current fiscal year,  with a budget allocation of Rs 130 million. Spokesperson at KMC, Ishwar Dangol, claimed that the metropolis was unable to procure all six  of them as the money was insufficient. “Hence, we decided to settle for just five ,” he said.

Officials from  KMC have said that the street-sweeping vehicles, the first to be owned by the metropolis, are being tried out as a pilot project . Before this, only the Department of Roads (DoR) had such vehicles. 

“If these vehicles show their worth, of which we are very hopeful , we plan to buy more of them,” Spokesperson Dangol said. The vehicles will have an average speed of 10 kilometers per hour. The metropolis has been divided into five sectors and  each will be served by one broomer. 

Dangol claimed that the newly bought broomers will be more efficient than the ones owned by DoR . The DoR machines have been known to pump the dust they collect right back into the surroundings. 

“The Italian vehicles have a capacity of 5.5 metric tons and these will  store the dust instead of pumping  it back out,” he added.

The vehicles will assuage the  locals of the Valley, who have been plagued by road dust, he said.  “The amount of dust in the capital is simply overwhelming.”

 
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