The Delhi government on Friday commissioned four vessels to aid in cleaning the Najafgarh drain leading to the Yamuna River.
Clean-up operations began on Friday in the Najafgarh drain using the Finnish-origin dredger, which costs more than Rs 8 crore.
Three hopper barges were also deployed to assist in the dredging operations at a combined cost of about Rs 5.25 crore, as per a Moneycontrol report.
A hopper barge is a type of vessel with large open-top cargo holds (hoppers) that can be used to easily load and unload materials. These vessels are unpowered—they need to be pulled using tugboats—and are designed to carry things like sand, gravel, coal, and dredged materials in bulk.
The amphibious multipurpose dredger, called the Watermaster, began operations after it was inaugurated by Delhi's Irrigation and Flood Control Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma at the Dulsiras village.
"Around 70 per cent of pollution in the Yamuna is due to the Najafgarh drain, and untreated sewage water enters here. We have deployed this new machine, which is one of the best in the world," he said.
Officials say that the dredger can operate from dry land to water depths of up to 6m, can remove about 600 cubic metres of sludge per hour, and can be used for a variety of "dredging, raking, piling, sludge removal, and aquatic weed clearance" operations.
The Watermaster is also equipped with four stabilisers, a 180° flexible excavator arm, and a 600-litre backhoe bucket, which helps it work efficiently in congested drain systems.
The self-propelled, self-unloading hopper barges will be responsible for assisting in dredging operations and for the removal of hyacinth and floating waste. Each barge has a capacity of 12 cubic metres.
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