Nagpur: Thick layers of sludge, silt and debris blanketed several neighbourhoods after Tuesday’s cloudburst-like rain, prompting Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) Solid Waste Management (SWM) department to launch a massive clean-up operation on Wednesday.From the narrow lanes of Azad Nagar and Krishna Nagar in Gittikhadan to Katol Road, Swawlambi Nagar, Narendra Nagar, Narsala and the Inner Ring Road, sanitation workers manually removed sludge from residential areas and cleared mud from roads to restore traffic movement.Earthmoving machines were deployed on wider roads where receding floodwaters had left large deposits of mud and debris. In several areas, workers used pickaxes and shovels to loosen hardened silt before loading it into trucks for disposal.Residents said the biggest challenge after the flooding was the thick sludge that entered homes, shops and streets, hampering movement and raising fears of mosquito breeding and disease outbreaks. In some localities, parked vehicles were partially buried under mud and had to be dug out before they could be moved.“Besides removing sludge, workers also cleared clogged roadside drains and removed garbage washed onto roads by the floodwaters to prevent secondary blockages in the drainage network in case of fresh rain,” chief sanitation officer Dr Gajendra Mahalle told TOI.Officials said the priority was to restore normalcy by making roads, internal lanes and public spaces in the worst-affected areas accessible at the earliest.
