BMC to double number of beach cleaners

Mumbai: As monsoon has finally arrived in the city, the garbage from the sea scattering over the beaches remains a concern for citizens. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will be doubling the labourers to clean the beaches of Mumbai, which are usually accumulated with excessive garbage during heavy rains. While the civic body has asked the contractors to deploy minimum 50 labourers in Juhu beach, they have stated that 100 labourers will be needed during monsoon season. As the sea pukes large amount of garbage at the beaches from within during this season owing to the strong wind action, it may lead to flooding in city’s roads alongside beaches due to clogging by plastic.

The BMC has already deployed cleaning machines including JCBs at city’s beaches. “For monsoon particularly, we are asking the contractors for more labourers. In Juhu Beach particularly, we need as much as 100 labourers to clean the beach round the clock,” said Prashant Gaikwad, assistant municipal commissioner. Before June, around 20 labourers were deployed for the beach clean up.

The BMC has awarded the contract of cleaning Juhu Beach to Spectron Engineers Private Limited on June 2 for the next six years. This contract was given at a cost of Rs 21 crore. “The labourers will be cleaning the beach on daily basis, but not during high tide. We already have two beach combers and have directed for one more. Though it helps in reducing man-power, we need more labourers to reach the beach spots where machines cannot go,” he added. A beach-combing machine is capable of picking up all kinds of scrap such as broken glasses, plastic, cans and twigs in a faster manner.