More patrolling, mechanised sweeping: MCDs’ action plans

Shyam Sunder Agarwal, mayor of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) said the civic body will once again focus on deploying water sprinklers and mechanical sweepers and is likely to broadly replicate last year’s plan.

The three municipal corporations have submitted their action plans to control air pollution in the city before the annual winter spike, said officials of the civic bodies.

The north MCD has also set up a separate dust control and management cell headed by its chief engineer. (Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO)

Largely similar, the three action plans to curb pollution from waste burning and dust focus on intensive patrolling, increased mechanical sweeping, targeted operation of GPS monitored water sprinkling tankers and a new portal, being developed with the help of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to monitor large construction sites.

Shyam Sunder Agarwal, mayor of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) said the civic body will once again focus on deploying water sprinklers and mechanical sweepers and is likely to broadly replicate last year’s plan.

The South Delhi Municipal Corporation’s (SDMC) action plan said it will procure four new electrical road sweepers that can cover inner colony roads, and added that a dashboard has been set up to monitor in real-time the operations of 24 mechanical road sweepers and 83 water sprinklers that will be pressed into action.

A senior official from the north corporation overseeing the formulation of the plan said the municipal corporations will, with DPCC, develop a common portal, on which it will be mandatory to register all construction sites above 20,000 sqm area. The civic body will also deploy 48 patrolling teams to check instances of waste burning in the city.

“Earlier, the patrolling teams operated at night, but we have decided that they will now function round-the-clock over the coming months. We have kept the target of planting 20,000 trees and 30,000 shrubs, of which 17,098 trees and 25,493 shrubs have been planted till August 31,” the official said.

The north MCD has also set up a separate dust control and management cell headed by its chief engineer.