Chief Minister of Maharashtra Eknath Shide announced the implementation of robots across Maharashtra to clean manholes, dispensing with human entry into sewer openings. The announcement was made during the inauguration of Clean Maharashtra Mission (Civil) 2.0.

“The Bandicoot robotic technology, which I have inaugurated in Ulhasnagar, can save the lives of sanitation workers who enter manholes to clean them. Every municipal corporation in Maharashtra must implement this, and the government will support all of them in doing so, because it is the responsibility of the government that no one dies in manholes anymore,” said the Chief Minister, during the inaugural function.

The program was inaugurated by Eknath Shinde in the presence of the Chief Guest Deputy Chief Minister, Maharashtra State, Devendra Fadnavis; Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra, Manukumar Srivastava; Principal Secretary (Navi-2) Department of Urban Development, Mantralaya, Mumbai, Sonia Sethi; and Additional Chief Secretary (Navi-1), Ministry of the Department of Urban Development, Mumbai, Bhushan Gagrani at Yashwantrao Chavan Foundation, Main Auditorium.

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Various urban local bodies across Maharashtra showcased their cleaning and safety equipment used for sanitation in the exhibition. The key highlight of the program was the Bandicoot Robot, the robotic scavenger used by Ullhasnagar and Dhule municipal corporations for maintaining the manholes in the cities. These advanced robots are well-equipped with gas sensing systems to detect hazardous gases. This helps the operator perceive and eliminate risks of accidents inside manholes. The interactive and user-friendly interface for manual scavengers aids in theirrehabilitation and uplifts the sanitation works to a robot operator position and helps them lead a respectful and better life.

Other cleaning techniques, such as sucking and grabbing machines, are also available, but they are unable to remove solid waste, and the grabbing machines can only clean around 20% of the space inside the manhole. The authorities are required to use human labor in this case. Bandicoot, however, outperforms other techniques of cleaning manhole blockages with 100% efficiency because of its robotic humanlike arms and a bigger opening bucket design.