Juhu Beach gets spruced up

Mumbai: Juhu beach, which is one of the major tourist attractions of the city, has currently donned a fresh and clean, despite the monsoon, thanks to the advanced beach cleaning machines. which were brought recently. In the last three months, the civic body has collected three times more trash as compared to the corresponding period last year.

According to civic data, the BMC collected about 3,500 metric tonnes of trash from Juhu beach between June and August, 2017. However, this year, with the help of three beach cleaning machines, the civic body has collected about 10,000 metric tonnes of trash from the beach during the same period.

For the Juhu beach cleaning project, the BMC has appointed Spectron engineers at an estimated cost of Rs 24 crore for six years. The contractor has started beach cleaning work from June with the new machines, said BMC officials.

The beach cleaning machines, which have a capacity of cleaning 20,000 sq metre of area per hour, are used with the help of a tractor. Their main feature is the six inch-long blade below the machine, which delves deep into the sand and brings out even the tiniest piece of trash like cigarette butts. The mesh inside the machine separates the sand from the trash. While the sand is thrown back onto the beach, the trash is collected in the container located at the machine’s rear end.

“To ensure proper cleaning of beaches, we have, for the first time, implemented the cleanliness drive in two phases – four months of monsoon and the remaining eight months. During the monsoon period, 120 labourers have been deployed, whereas during the remaining period, 60 workers will be deployed,” said Vishwas Shankarwar, the deputy municipal commissioner,  solid waste management.), said.

Juhu chowpatty, covers an area of 3.60 lakh sq m, is about 6 km long and 60 metres wide. Besides being a major tourist attraction, several religious festivals are also celebrated on the beach. Fishermen, living along the coast, use the beach as part of their business.