NDMC rolls out intensive sanitation drive across Lutyens’ Delhi

New Delhi, Mar 9 (PTI) The New Delhi Municipal Council on Monday began an intensive sanitation campaign across its jurisdiction, stepping up cleaning, dust-control measures as dry leaves and construction dust add to the city's seasonal sanitation burden, officials said.

According to officials, the Council's Chairman, Keshav Chandra, has asked heads of departments to oversee the drive as nodal officers for 14 sanitation circles, with responsibility for monitoring field work, deploying staff and ensuring daily reporting. The chairman is also visiting one sanitation zone each day to review the work on the ground.

"The campaign will focus on clearing garbage and construction debris, cleaning parks, markets, underpasses, schools, government buildings and places of worship, and repairing footpaths. Teams will also prune trees and shrubs, clean roadside and storm-water drains and repaint walls and medians in several stretches," officials said.

One of the immediate challenges this time of year is the large quantity of dry leaves that fall along avenues, residential lanes and markets. New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) said nearly 43 tonnes of dry leaves are collected every day and sent to composting facilities at Okhla, where they are processed into organic manure for use in parks and green belts.

To manage road dust, four mechanised road sweepers have been deployed on major roads and pavements in two shifts, including night operations. On average, the machines cover about 7,338 km of roads each month, with their movement tracked through GPS and monitored from the command and control centre at Palika Kendra.

Twenty-nine pushback manual sweepers have also been procured to complement manual sweeping activities across sanitation zones. To further strengthen mechanised sanitation, 20 gobbler machines are currently under technical evaluation -- to be used for mechanised leaf and litter collection in large-scale sanitation drives once operational. "Around 1,574 sanitation workers have been deployed across the Council's jurisdiction for the campaign. The civic body also handles about 310 tonnes of municipal waste daily on average, of which around 246 tonnes is dry waste sent to waste-to-energy plants, and about 64 tonnes of wet and horticulture waste processed at composting units," official statement read.

For the current drive, the NDMC has also deployed a mix of equipment including electric carts in high-footfall areas such as Connaught Place, Sarojini Nagar and Bengali Market, along with trolleys, manual pushback sweepers and gobbler machines to support large-scale leaf and litter collection across sanitation zones. Dust suppression measures have also been expanded. Eight mobile anti-smog guns are operating on NDMC roads, while one static unit has been installed at Pandit Pant Marg. Anti-smog guns have also been placed on several high-rise buildings and at construction sites such as Sarojini Nagar and Netaji Nagar, officials said.

Further adding that the civic body is also using 20 water tankers carrying 5,000-10,000 litres of treated water from sewage treatment plants for regular sprinkling on roads and roadside vegetation. Construction and demolition waste generated in the NDMC area about 39.3 metric tonnes a day on average is collected and sent to the recycling plant in Okhla. Fourteen sites have been earmarked within the area for systematic collection, officials added.

Additional equipment, including high-pressure jetting machines and wet mopping systems, has been deployed to clean markets, plazas, pavements and signages, while mist spray systems and fountains installed along key roads and roundabouts are also being used to help keep dust levels down. The NDMC has said the schedule of mechanised road sweepers will be shared with resident welfare associations and market bodies, and residents have been encouraged to share feedback on sanitation work in their areas. PTI VBH PRK