It was a lazy Sunday morning in December 1999. After a relaxed breakfast, Milind Patwardhan, secretary of the Sai Shradha residential complex in Thane, was about to switch on his TV when his doorbell rang. It was Sunil Uplap, a mechanical engineer, and he had something unusual to offer—at least for an engineer. Uplap said he wanted to clean the overhead water tank of the apartment complex. Patwardhan was willing to have the tanks cleaned but was bewildered when the engineer said he would do the job himself.
Patwardhan led Uplap to his building’s 15,000 litre tank. Over the next few minutes, the latter and his five assistants drained the water in it. Then, after arming himself with a battery of sophisticated gadgets, Uplap jumped in and began the cleaning process. He pumped out the remaining water from the tank, removed nearly two feet of sludge, used a high-pressure water jet to wash the inside and vacuumed it with an industrial vacuum cleaner. Finally, the tank was sterilised with ultra-violet radiation. After an entire day’s work, Sai Shradha’s water tank was spotlessly clean. Patwardhan was dumbstruck. More so when Uplap charged him a mere Rs 800 for the clean-up. This was how Uplap launched Tanclean, his tank cleaning company. Full article.