Stretches of road measuring 315km to become dust-free in Noida

The Noida authority said on Sunday it has prepared an action plan to develop stretches measuring 315km on different internal roads of residential and industrial sectors to make them free of dust

The Noida authority said on Sunday it has prepared an action plan to develop stretches measuring 315km on different internal roads of residential and industrial sectors to make them free of dust by planting saplings and grass along footpaths.

The authority’s target is to plant saplings on all spaces available along the roads. (HT Photo)

The objective is to mitigate the effect of dust pollution caused by lose soil, Noida authority officials said.

Pollution from dust increases during the summer months when strong, dry winds carry lose alluvium posing health issues for
residents.

After realising that dust was polluting the city’s air, the authority had, in June 2017, decided to make the roads dust-free. However, the project is yet to see the light of the day as it took time to prepare estimates and award tenders to private agencies, which have been engaged to complete this work.

“We have developed a 4.5km stretch of an internal road in sector 82 as a ‘dust-free zone.’ Work on several other road stretches will begin soon as the tender process is in the pipeline,” said Alok Tandon, chief executive officer of the Noida authority.

Maintaining that the authority has identified areas such as sectors 35, 50, 55, 57, 60, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 74, 76, 77 and 78 for the project, a Noida authority official said, “We will start work on dust-free project in these sectors as we have identified all stretches.”

“We are likely to select the agency for these areas soon as the process of selection is almost about to finish. We aim to make stretches along all internal and main roads dust-free in the time to come,” said Tandon.

The authority’s target is to plant saplings on all spaces available along the roads.

“The idea is to keep dust from flying and getting mixed with air. We will make each area green, one by one. We will plant grass, plants or trees according to the space available at a particular spot,” said the authority official.