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The Delhi Cabinet on Tuesday approved a plan to make the capital's roads free of dust pollution using water sprinkler machines and mechanical road sweeping machines.
As per plan, the Delhi government will procure 70 mechanical road sweeping machines, allocating one machine per assembly constituency. In addition, 250 water sprinkling machines with integrated anti-smog guns will be deployed in the 250 municipal wards, according to an official statement.
It has also been decided that the 1,449-km stretch of major roads of Delhi that come under the PWD will be cleaned by the department itself instead of the MCD, it said.
Addressing a press conference, Delhi Cabinet Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said a proposal was presented by the Environment Ministry to curb dust pollution in the city and also ensure sanitation of public places in the national capital.
He said the first decision entails the procurement of 70 mechanical road-sweeping machines one for each Vidhan Sabha constituency in Delhi. He also added that all the roads that are wider than 60 feet in Delhi and come under the PWD will be cleaned by the department.
Bharadwaj added that sanitation duties on these roads were earlier given to the MCD, but from now on, they will be cleaned by the PWD.
"A meeting was also held with the MCD commissioner and additional commissioner on this matter yesterday and the proposal was raised over there that the roads that were earlier cleaned by them will now be cleaned by the PWD. For this purpose, 70 mechanical road-sweeping machines will be procured and in the Cabinet meeting held today, it was agreed that the tenders for these machines will be put out very soon," he said.
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The second key decision taken by the Cabinet on Tuesday involved taking active steps to curb dust that is present on the roads of Delhi. He said 250 water-sprinkling machines will be deployed by the Delhi government one each for every ward and these machines will be integrated with anti-smog guns.
He said that the Cabinet gave its approval for the procurement of these machines.
Bharadwaj added that for this purpose, Rs 2,388 crore will be spent by the Delhi government over the next 7-10 years. He explained that the life cycle of some of these machines is seven years while for the others, it is 10 years.
He also said that in the first year, Rs 257 crore will be spent to procure some of these machines.
The minister also said the water required to operate these machines will be provided by the Delhi Jal Board and added that 1,500 kilo-litres of treated water per day from the sewer-treatment plants of the DJB will be provided for the purpose.
Further, since these machines suck out the dust from the roads like a vacuum cleaner, the dust gets settled in the equipment and therefore to remove them, 18 dump vehicles and as many water tankers will also be procured by the Delhi government under the same tender.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
