Prayagraj Municipal Corporation Enhances River Cleaning Efforts for Mahakumbh

Advanced Machines Deployed for Cleaning Sangam, 4 Km Stretch

PMC Steps up River Cleaning for Mahakumbh
Prayagraj, February 11: In the run-up to Mahakumbh, the Ganga and Yamuna rivers are going to be clean. For the same, the Prayagraj Municipal Corporation has also deployed modern trash skimmer machines. Those are such three-year-old machines that such a huge chunk of waste is being removed that Sangam area is coming out clean for devotees on a daily basis.

This is part of the overall Uttar Pradesh government's strategy to clean up the rivers. The machines can collect 13 cubic meters of waste and run along a 4 km stretch that includes the Sangam and Boat Club areas. Advanced technology has considerably helped in increasing the pace of removing waste since preparations for Mahakumbh have already begun.

Trash Skimmer Machines Deployed
The cleaning programme had started in rivers three years back with installing the trash skimmer machine, but the rate then was mere 50 to 60 quintals a day. Two years back, it was procuring another machine doubling up the cleanliness pace.

Together, both of these machines now are taking away about 10 to 15 tons of waste daily from stopping the pollutants to remain in the river. Official also expects an increase in the footfall and with Mahakumbh 2025 in advance, and so do in the quantity of waste collected.

What does Trash Skimmer removes?
The trash skimmer machines are specifically designed to collect floating wastes at the river's surface. This machine collects plastic wastes, waste bottles, religious wastes, clothes, metal articles, puja offerings, dead animals, and birds. This further removes water hyacinth aquatic weeds from the rivers. They cause interruption in the free flow of water in nature, which has severe effects on river water quality .

Operational capacity and coverage
Machines today cover 4 km area inside the river along with key areas such as the Sangam and Boat Club. As asserted by the officials, during Mahakumbh preparation period, collection through these machines has gone up a notch and have increased by 20 times more than ever.
It takes in the collecting of flowers, garlands, leaf plates, incense papers, plastic, coconut, and cloth wastes on rivers, this general pollutants surrounding here.

What is the functionality of the Trash Skimmer Machine?
It acts with a plain mechanism but incredibly effective:
This has gates placed on both the sides hydraulically operated capture floating wastes.
Once it collects the wastes, it carries the wastes into the conveyor belt located inside the machine.
It transports the wastes through the conveyor belt to the unloading area.
The wastes are then taken outside the machine and disposed of in the proper area.
Waste Disposal and Management
In order to remove the collected waste, PMC identified a dumping ground near Naini, through which wastes get transported daily at Baswar Waste Processing Plant

Waste sort happens at this plant as is listed below.

Plastics send for recycling purpose
Organic and other Bio-degradable commodities like coconut shell is processed so that it become compost

Machine Imported from Mumbai
This project imported machines from Mumbai. The operation and maintenance of these machines are given to the supplier company in a five-year contract. The machines will maintain river cleanliness throughout the Mahakumbh period.

River Cleaning Plans for the Future
Therefore, PMC is also considering increasing its cleaning operations with more machines and more manual cleaning activities. Undoubtedly, with this heavy inflow of devotees during Mahakumbh, waste management will always be on top as priority. The administration wants the rivers to pollution-free when the event takes place.

Conclusion
Now with Mahakumbh almost arriving, trash skimmer machines being deployed at such a juncture is effective in keeping Ganga and Yamuna clean. This has gone hand-in-glove with some of the wider river conservation projects and works on the theme for reducing pollution from sacred water bodies. Long term use of the modern cleaning technology will prove very effective even post the event, in river sustainability.