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Special train started to fight dengue
In a move to prevent mosquito breeding in areas surrounding railway tracks in Delhi, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has provided a truck-mounted power sprayer to Railways that will spray larvicides in water bodies around the tracks. Rhythma Kaul reports.
In a move to prevent mosquito breeding in areas surrounding railway tracks in Delhi, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has provided a truck-mounted power sprayer to Railways that will spray larvicides in water bodies around the tracks.
Flagged off on Thursday afternoon, the Railways will regularly run this special train—Mosquito Terminator — to take this truck around in the Delhi area. It is mounted on a special kind of wagon that has a low flat surface for a truck or any other vehicle to help easily load on it.
The engine passed through areas such as Sadar Bazar, Kishanganj, Sarai Rohilla, Patel Nagar, Delhi Cant, Palam, Shahabad Mohammadpur, Bijwasan and Gurgaon, before returning to New Delhi in the evening.
"A large number of people live around Railway tracks, particularly in JJ clusters, and are exposed to aedes and other types of mosquitoes leading to higher incidence of dengue and malaria, as the water bodies formed along the tracks serves as a breeding ground for mosquitoes," said K.S. Mehra, commissioner, Municipal Corporation of Delhi.
With the powerful sprayers it is possible to sanitise the distance of 50-60 metres from the track. Each container carries about 150 kilolitres of larvicides, costing R 800 and the cost of the container is R 2 lakh each.
Teh MCD will provide as many containers each day as required for effective spray till the dengue threat is over.
The government is undertaking all possible measures to ensure dengue and other vector-borne diseases are under check during the Commonwealth Games. Chief secretary, Delhi government, Rakesh Mehta, will present a status report on actions being taken so far in this regard in a meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) to be held on Friday.
With 26 new cases on Thursday, the total number of people affected reached 340.
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