Amid rising questions and concerns, the GBA made the detailed cost breakdown public on Sunday.
Published Nov 25, 2025 | 8:58 AM ⚊ Updated Nov 25, 2025 | 3:36 PM
Road sweeping machine. (Screengrab)
Synopsis: The State government, on 13 November, approved GBA’s proposal of renting out 46 mechanical sweeping machines for a period of seven years at a cost of ₹613 crore, to tackle dust and debris on roads. The self-propelled mechanical sweeper machines, along with dumper trucks and human resources, will be hired.
With rising concerns about the ₹613 crore road-sweeping machine proposal, the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) on Sunday, 23 November, responded by making the cost breakdown of the project public.
Based on the detailed cost breakdown on their official website, the total annual cost per km is estimated at ₹894.53 for year one. GBA Chief Commissioner Maheshwar Rao gave detailed information about the working and deployment of the sweeping machine in a press conference.
Chief Commissioner Maheshwar Rao shared detailed information about the working and deployment of the sweeping machine.#GreaterBengaluruAuthority #DKShivakumar #gbachiefcommssioner pic.twitter.com/h9qduu1sSR
— Greater Bengaluru Authority (@GBA_office) November 20, 2025
The State government, on 13 November, approved GBA’s proposal of renting out 46 mechanical sweeping machines for a period of seven years at a cost of ₹613 crore, to tackle dust and debris on roads. The self-propelled mechanical sweeper machines, along with dumper trucks and human resources, will be hired. This decision was made based on the recommendation of the technical committee after various considerations and calculations, said Rao.
Urban experts, however, raised concerns about monitoring and accountability.
Amid rising questions and concerns, the GBA made the detailed cost breakdown public on Sunday. The break-up of the estimated annual cost of one road-sweeping machine for approximately 40 km of daily operations, i.e., approximately 14,400 km annually, including fuel, manpower, routine maintenance, replacement of parts, etc, excluding GST, in Year 1 is a total of ₹1.29 crore.
According to the breakdown, annually, the total operation and maintenance cost per kilometre is ₹563.68, and ₹330.85 is the EMI cost for the machine. This includes ₹243.31 on fuel, ₹104.12 on maintenance, and ₹122.34 on manpower.
The breakdown offers details of all the rates excluding GST. The cost of operations and maintenance of the sweeping machine includes the cost of fuel, tires, batteries, crew charges, footpath cleaning, water tanker and labour charges, collection and transportation cost, and cost of one hook loader among others.
The rate also includes driver and crew charges, fuel and all other operations and maintenance charges, including the cost of sweepers/road cleaners, incidental expenses, and unforeseen charges, with an annual increment of five percent, and includes the owning cost of the machine for a period of seven years.
Urban experts expressed their uncertainty over whether renting sweeping machines is an efficient solution for the city’s cleanliness problem.
Dr Shanthi Tummala, Founder of HSR Citizens Forum claimed that renting these machines would shift the accountability to the companies. “The real concern is the need for a monitoring system,” she added.
Further, BJP contended that each of those machines cost around ₹2.5 crore, and if the government purchases 46 sweeping machines, it will be just a fraction of the cost, with the total cost estimated at ₹115 crore, as per the Union government’s e-marketplace portal – with some of them even calling it a “scam”.
Urban experts question why GBA is contracting out the municipal corporation’s work.
“Road-cleaning is a municipal function,” Ashwin Mahesh, Urbanist and Political Expert, shared on his X account.
He said, “The government should be seeking out cleaning services, not machines necessarily.” He further said that getting mechanical sweeping machines is not a bad move. “But is this the right way? Buying or renting machines instead of seeking cleaning services?” he asked.
(a) It’s good that the government is promising transparency – publishing the calculations now will give confidence in that promise.
(b) However, there is an option better than buying or renting the machines – we should instead be contracting the cleaning service.
(c)… pic.twitter.com/8YP5oDPgYv
— Ashwin Mahesh (@ashwinmahesh) November 21, 2025
Other experts claimed that investing in the road sweeping machines will mark ownership and demand accountability.
“Renting these machines would simply shift the accountability to the companies. Who will monitor and keep them accountable?” asked Tummala.
The old sweeping machines, she said, “were hardly monitored, and there have been instances where the collected dust is dumped on vacant plots. This fine dust is the cause of allergies.”
The real question, she claimed, isn’t whether we buy or rent these machines, but whether the stakeholders will take ownership and accountability.
She further said that mechanical road sweepers can only be used on major roads such as the Outer Ring Road. “They also just sweep the median of the roads, leaving dust on the sides near the footpaths untouched,” she added.
These machines cannot be used on main roads due to vehicle parking, Tummala added.
“There is nothing these mechanical road sweeping machines can do when it comes to garbage. Huge numbers will not always translate into results, unless operations are monitored and the stakeholders take accountability for the spending of the taxpayers’ money,” she further noted.
(With inputs from Haleema Suha Ameen)
