Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India, visited the stretch of Barapullah drain near Bhogal Market in South Delhi on March 20, 2023, to witness the operation of DM-80 Drain Master, a self-propelled amphibious excavator technology developed by M/s Cleantec Infra Pvt Ltd for the cleaning and desilting of Barapullah drain. This initiative has been undertaken under the Waste to Wealth Mission, Office of the PSA to the Government of India.
Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Ajay K. Sood appreciated the technology and efforts to clean the Barapullah drain and said, “I am happy to see that the one-year pilot project with DrainMaster DM-80, which is an indigenous technology for cleaning urban drains, has proved to be a success. It exemplifies how S&T can address challenges in handling waste. This pilot project’s success at Barapullah Drain gives us the confidence to scale up and implement such technologies to clean our drains across India.”
Cleaning open drains in congested areas has always been a challenge in India because there is no or limited access to traditional equipment like Joseph Cyril Bamford (JCB) excavator, Poclain, etc. Additionally, human settlements on both sides of the drain with narrow passages make it impossible to dispose of the collected waste. The Barapullah drain in South Delhi is one such drain that is blocked at various locations with sewage, trash, and debris, resulting in foul odour, vector-borne diseases, unhygienic conditions, and flooding in the monsoons.
To address this critical problem, the Waste to Wealth Mission collaborated with South Delhi Municipal Corporation (now Municipal Corporation of Delhi) to jointly pilot an indigenous, customized excavator – Drain Master DM-80, designed and developed by M/s Cleantec Infra Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai. The DM-80 unit was selected to address the critical gap area of technologies for cleaning congested urban drains clogged with mixed waste, including construction and demolition debris which are very hard to dislodge and remove.
