NEW DELHI: As the city is heading towards another pollution season, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has set an October 31 deadline to complete work on 870 km of roads. It was handed over to the MCD while outlining a series of measures aimed at controlling road dust, improving waste collection and preventing garbage burning.
Addressing the MCD Standing Committee meeting on Tuesday, commissioner Sanjeev Khirwar said that around 600 km of the road network had been completed.
The work progressed through funds, including the Chief Minister’s Development Fund (CMDF) and other government-supported allocations, the senior official said.
According to the commissioner, road and dust management would form a major component of the MCD’s pollution-control strategy. The civic body is also working on procuring specialised machinery under an OPEX model, with the target of bringing some machines by mid-November. An order has been placed for 1,000-litre machines, with the MCD aiming to receive 300-400 machines before October 31.
Khirwar said the civic body was strengthening collection and transportation contracts in several zones to enhance solid waste management. In west Delhi, the target is to expand improved waste collection to 25 wards by September 20, and the objective is to ensure that garbage does not accumulate or get burnt during the pollution season, he said.
The civic body has also identified 48 pollution hotspots across the city, with deputy commissioners instructed to review them every week. Khirwar also mentioned that pollution control cannot be handled by MCD alone and requires coordination among departments, including the PWD, government and environment authorities.Another key focus of the strategy is the management of construction and demolition (C&D) waste sites.
Of the 125 such sites, 110 were reported to be fully compliant, with measures such as covering waste, installing water sprinklers and deploying CCTV cameras in place.
Khirwar further said that the civic agency had sealed around 1,200 air-polluting units in non-conforming areas, with the number expected to exceed 1,300 as it steps up efforts to curb local sources of pollution. The measures come ahead of the winter months, when road dust, waste burning and other local emission sources are likely to face heightened scrutiny.