Task force to monitor roadside green cover in Delhi

New Delhi: Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai on Tuesday constituted a district-level task force to oversee the increase in the city’s roadside green cover, and directed all road-owning agencies in Delhi to submit an action plan within 15 days on roadside greening initiatives under their jurisdiction

New Delhi: Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai on Tuesday constituted a district-level task force to oversee the increase in the city’s roadside green cover, and directed all road-owning agencies in Delhi to submit an action plan within 15 days on roadside greening initiatives under their jurisdiction.

HT Image

“A joint review meeting was held at the Delhi Secretariat with all concerned departments to discuss future strategies to improve the roadside green cover of Delhi, which is one of the 14 key focus areas of the summer action plan. All road-owning authorities have been given directives to formulate an action plan to tackle the city’s increasing dust pollution during the meeting,” said Rai on Tuesday, after the meeting which included officials from the city’s forest department, Public Works Department (PWD), Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC), municipal corporations and other road-owning agencies.

Rai further said that each road-owning agency will also carry out an assessment of the current green cover on the sides of the roads under their jurisdiction.

“Agencies will conduct road mapping to determine the amount and type of green cover available in each location. Agencies can select what additional action is required by categorising it into better and worse categories, which will include mapping of areas with little to no green cover,” he added.

Rai said that an overall plan will be prepared based on the reports submitted by the road-owning agencies in the next 15 days.

“PWD had already been given directives to boost the amount of green cover along Delhi’s roadsides. Additional directives have now been issued to cover other road-owning agencies. To increase the amount of green cover along Delhi’s roadsides, teams will also be deployed at the district level,” he added.