The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) will add at least 70 mechanised road sweeping machines (MRSMs) to its fleet by October, ahead of the capital’s high-pollution season — a move aimed at expanding coverage and replacing ageing equipment, according to senior corporation officials.The officials were responding to a key finding of an investigation by The Indian Express, showing that the city’s fleet of mechanised sweeping machines is far short of what has been recommended.Officially, the MCD did not respond to a questionnaire sent by The Indian Express on the findings of its investigation that analysed GPS data of MRSM operations in the capital.The officials, meanwhile, said the new machines will be deployed on redesigned routes and operated under revised performance benchmarks that more precisely define “actual sweeping” work.The expansion comes alongside efforts by the MCD to address inefficiencies in current operations, including gaps in GPS-based monitoring, the official said. The civic body also plans to introduce a “public-facing” app for real-time tracking of sweeping vehicles, as part of a broader push toward greater transparency.A senior MCD official, with whom the findings of the investigation were first shared, said tenders were floated on April 2 for the purchase of 70 MRSMs. The new vehicles, he said, will operate on routes identified in a more “scientific” manner, alongside existing ones.“Some of the new machines will also replace current ones, which are nine years old. Their life will expire in another year. Hence, we need the new fleet,” he said.Story continues below this adThe newer fleet will also cover more distance per shift. The official said when a sweeping vehicle is in operation, only part of the time and distance is spent cleaning roads, the rest is devoted to non-cleaning activities such as driving to the starting point, dumping collected waste, refuelling and filling water. “Only about 60-65% of total travel is actual cleaning work; the rest is non-productive movement,” the official said.Earlier, when MRSMs were required to run 40 km in a day, only 30 km counted as “actual sweeping work”. Under the new contract, he said, 40 km of pure sweeping must be completed over an 8-hour shift. “So, under the new system, the total cleaning work output across all vehicles will be 2,800 km per day,” he said.Responding to another finding of the investigation, about lesser MRSM coverage during summer, he said data uploaded in the public domain could, in some instances, be inaccurate.According to the official, the current system uses SIM-based GPS tracking, which means vehicles send location data through mobile networks. This, he said, can result in delays or failures for four reasons. GPS data is not always sent instantly; network issues delay data packets; routes may not be mapped perfectly; and the API (the software system that collects data)may not receive information properly. “This can make it look like there is a gap or inconsistency. The discrepancy is only in live monitoring, not in cumulative records,” he said.Story continues below this adThe MCD has hired a new IT vendor to fix these discrepancies, the official said. “The new vendor is also working on enhancing the technology. Currently, data available to the public includes the date, time and route of the machines, but now we are planning that when these 70 are deployed, we will develop an app where people can see which vehicles are passing through their area, what the issues are, and what is not,” he said.Under the new tender, operators will also be required to integrate IoT (Internet of Things) systems. “They will use IoT, which means the vehicles will be equipped with sensors, GPS and software that automatically collect and transmit data about their movement and work, such as their exact location, the distance they have covered for cleaning, and the routes they have followed, without requiring any manual reporting from operators,” the official said.The aim, he said, is to enable real-time tracking with live updates, ensure transparency by preventing false reporting, and reduce human interference to make the process more automated, accurate and data-driven. “We have asked them (the vendor) to research and tell us what technologies they will apply and where, for data transfers, so as to provide real-time and transparent data to the public,” he said.