PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will deploy at least five ‘Jatayu’ machines, which are meant for contactless cleaning of select spots across the city that are probe to garbage dumping. These trash collection machines facilitate the clearing of up to two tonnes of garbage from roadsides per day.
Developed and patented by Abhishek Shelar, alumnus of Harvard University and IIT Bombay, each machine has enough suction power to lift coconuts, glass, bottles, leaves, medical waste, food waste, clothes, cans, shoes, and all types of litter without choking.
PMC assistant commissioner Kunal Khemnar said, “One machine has already been deployed at various chronic dumping spots across the city, and we are expecting to get another four to be manufactured within few weeks as they are built to order. These machines will be helpful in cleaning up dumping-prone locations across five zones, most of which are either commercial in nature or have had boundary issues that have impeded garbage collection. After collection, garbage will be broadly segregated and delivered to processing plants.”
Sanket Jadhav, a junior engineer at PMC, said, “We have taken the machines on lease as we don’t want the liability of maintenance. They will be mostly used in the newly added villages, where garbage collection systems are not so strong.”
Shelar attested that his machines have already been sold or leased to municipal corporations of major metros, such as Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi. He told TOI, “Over 10 states and six capitals are efficiently using these machines.”
