The vacuum cleaning of the Capital’s streets is going to take off on a rather humble note
The Public Works Department (PWD), scheduled to begin vacuum cleaning a selected number of stretches from Thursday night, will initially execute the exercise with just four foreign-manufactured machines procured from private contractors.
“We aim to increase the number of these machines over the next 10 to 15 days and are looking at reaching full strength, pegged at around 25, over the next two months,” said Sarvagya Srivastava, engineer-in-chief, PWD, with additional charge of the Department as Special Secretary.
Given the meagre number of machines, procured by the Department on a per kilometre basis from private service providers, visible impact of the cleaning may take a fortnight.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will preside over a stock-taking meeting with several departments to chart the way forward on dust-control measures announced by his government in December last year. The meeting was to take place on Friday but will now be held early next week.
“Representatives from the three Municipal Corporations, the Delhi Development Authority , the Environment Department and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee had been directed to take action against dust pollution from construction sites and garbage burning at public places,” said a senior government official.
“The officials have been asked to submit compliance reports detailing the action taken, which will be reviewed at the meeting,” the official added.
PWD has only four machines to vacuum its road, says it
will procure more machines soon
