New Delhi: Pushing its flagship ‘broom-free city’ initiative aimed at fully mechanised sanitation, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has expanded the deployment of machines for a range of cleaning operations across its area.On Friday, NDMC chairman Keshav Chandra flagged off 20 battery-operated litter-picking machines, or gobblers, to strengthen cleaning in markets and other high-footfall areas.“The move is a significant step towards modernising urban sanitation and reducing dependence on manual sweeping through technology-driven solutions that improve efficiency, worker safety and sustainability,” said Chandra. He added that the low-noise, eco-friendly machines will help in efficient cleaning of public spaces.NDMC is also using electric e-carts for segregated waste collection from major public spaces such as Connaught Place, Khan Market and Sarojini Nagar. In addition, 27 wet-mopping trolleys have been deployed for daily wet cleaning of market areas.The civic body has a fleet of seven mechanised road-sweeping (MRS) machines for cleaning major arterial roads, leaf blowers for collecting dry leaves and high-pressure jetting machines for dust suppression. Litter pickers are used for final sweeping operations.Officials said 10 high-pressure jetting machines are deployed on a rotational basis every 15 days for deep cleaning and dust suppression in markets, corridors, plazas, footpaths and kerbside areas. The seven MRS machines together cover around 350-400 km of roads daily.For narrower lanes and colonies where large machines cannot operate, 29 pushback or manual sweepers have been deployed. NDMC has also introduced four ride-on sweepers and four scrubbers for mechanised cleaning of footpaths in pedestrian-heavy zones.Chandra said the integrated approach would ensure better sequencing of activities, optimal resource use and sustained improvement in cleanliness across NDMC areas, helping set new benchmarks in urban sanitation.