India News : In Mumbai, the Municipal Corporation’s Solid Waste Management (SWM) Department spends nearly ₹1.5 crore annually on purchasing brooms for city cleaning. The expenditure includes around 3,17,500 kilograms of broomsticks (Broom Goa) and approximately 16,500 grass brooms, used across the city to maintain cleanliness.
While mechanical sweepers are deployed on a few major roads, traditional brooms remain the primary tool for cleaning most streets. To meet the city’s vast cleaning requirements, the BMC procures both ready-made brooms and broomsticks by weight, which are later tied together to form complete brooms.
According to officials, broomsticks are purchased at a rate of ₹47.89 per kilogram. For the current year, the cost of 3,17,500 kilograms of broomsticks amounts to approximately ₹1.52 crore. Each grass broom costs ₹59.20, making the total cost for 16,500 brooms around ₹9.76 lakh.
The SWM department noted that the purchase price is 0.23% to 7.5% lower than the estimated cost and will remain fixed for the entire year. Despite gradual mechanization, Mumbai’s massive cleaning operations still rely heavily on manual labor and traditional tools to keep the metropolis clean.
