New Delhi: To reduce air pollution in the national capital, the Delhi government is planning to make all the city roads dust-free through mechanical cleaning and planting of grass along the roadside.
According to the government, dust is one of the major factors for increasing air pollution in the city. Around 38 per cent pollution is caused by dust.
Taking a serious note of the dust pollution, National Green Tribunal (NGT) on April 9 also ruled that dust emissions from construction sites will be completely controlled by all authorities.
"The government is very serious about the increasing level of dust in the city. We have prepared a plan to decrease air pollution, according to which we will make all 1,200 km roads of Public Works Department (PWD) dust-free by mechanical cleaning.
"Within next three months, mechanical cleaning of PWD's roads will begin," PWD minister Satyender Jain told PTI.
As per government officials, around 78 per cent of the pollution is caused by vehicles, out of which 38 per cent pollution is due to dust.
By these steps, more than 27 per cent air pollution could be decreased, they said.
Jain said, "dust remains suspended in the air because of continuous movement of vehicles on the city roads and to adopt a permanent solution for this problem, we have decided to plant grass along roads."
The government also plans to repair all broken footpaths, the minister added.
Concerned over increasing air pollution, the NGT recently ordered to ban all diesel-run vehicles which are more than 10 years old.
