With an objective of augmenting income for local washermen and reducing pollution in water bodies, the Sircilla civic body has set up a high-tech mechanised dhobi ghat at an estimated cost of ₹ 1.05 crore at Venkampet in the textile town of Sircilla, seeking to empower washermen with technology.
The eco-friendly initiative is aimed at increasing the productivity of work for washerman community, reducing consumption of water and detergent for washing clothes besides drudgery involved in washing clothes manually, especially in the COVID induced turbulent times.
The Telangana Urban Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation (TUFIDC)-funded modern dhobi ghat was formally inaugurated by Minister for Municipal Administration and Information Technology K T Rama Rao in Sircilla last week.
With an installed washing capacity of 120 kg, the modern dhobi ghat can wash 240 clothes per hour saving precious water and time, sources in Sircilla municipality said.
The unit is equipped with three high capacity washing machines, three hydro extractors, two tumble driers, one calendaring machine (electric stream roller), two vacuum ironing tables, among other modern machinery.
The well-equipped closed unit allows washermen to continue their work uninterruptedly with greater ease even during rainy season and earn a sustainable income, said Sucharan, Executive Engineer, Sircilla Municipality.
The modern dhobi ghat will be run by the local washermen of Venkampet and set a role model trend for others to follow suit, he remarked, adding that many of the local washermen were familiar with the operation of modern washing machines.
“The washing machines consumes 250 grams of surf to wash for its capacity in 30 minutes consuming 0.5 units of power.
The Calendaring Machine irons the plain clothes such as bed sheets and pillow covers, which are brought from tumble drier within a minute with less power consumption,” noted Varun, Assistant Engineer, Sircilla Municipality.
He highlighted the salient features of the high tech dhobi ghat.
“We are eager to commence full fledged operation of the modern dhobi ghat with collective strength,” said Kasarla Laxman, president of Rajaka Sangham, Venkampet.
Most of us are Dubai returnees and as such we have hands on experience in handling high capacity washing machines and other equipment, he told The Hindu.
We will make optimum use of the modern dhobi ghat to handle linen from the hospitals and lodges to make the unit productive and improve livelihoods of members of our washerman community, said another washerman of Venkampet, a Gulf returnee.
