Delhi’s MCDs on a mechanical sweeping machine-buying overdrive to combat air pollution

The three municipal corporations of Delhi -- north, south and east -- are on a vacuum cleaning machines - buying spree in a bid to combat air pollution in the capital.

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation, which purchased four mechanical sweeping machines last week, said it will buy another four within the next two weeks.

In the last one month, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation has bought 24 litter-picking machines. The south body also bought 12 vacuum cleaning machines in the last three months.

The East Delhi Municipal Corporation, which is grappling with a fund crunch, has bought three machines in the last two months. Senior officials in the east civic body said they were awaiting funds and planned to buy at least four more vacuum cleaning machines.

Inaugurating a machine at Shalimar Bagh on Saturday, Tilak Raj Kataria, standing committee chairman of the north corporation said. “Each machines will cover a distance of 100km in a day. The price of one machine is around Rs 70 lakh,” he said.

Civic agency officials said vacuum cleaning machines work in such a way that the cleared dust from the road does not disperse in the air, a common problem with manual sweeping. The machines sprinkle water so that the remaining dust settles on the road.

“They will move slowly on the roads to clean dust properly and suck it up with the vacuum. Machines are modified to sprinkle water on the road simultaneously, so that dust does not fly in air,” said south civic body commissioner Puneet Goel.

Goel said the south corporation has also proposed to buy small machines ,which will clean ‘internal roads’ of residential colonies.

On November 7, when pollution level spiked across the city, the Environment Pollution Control and Prevention Authority(EPCA) directed civic bodies to resort to vacuum cleaning on roads instead of manual sweeping.

Even EPCA’s Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), which was enforced last month and designed to control air pollution in Delhi-NCR, lays emphasis on sweeping roads using vacuum cleaners.