Mumbai: The BMC authorities have directed officials of all the 25 administrative wards in the city to identify the roads that have regular morning walkers. The roads will be cleaned and washed on priority to avoid inconvenience to the citizens who arrive early for fresh air.
The BMC has prioritised washing the busiest roads to settle dust particles across the city. The roads are cleaned through vehicle-mounted mist sprayer machines and pipes attached to water tankers. The civic authorities recently decided to hire an additional 10 tankers for each ward to achieve the target of washing 1,000km of roads daily.
Morning walkers face inconvenience through clean activities
However, morning walkers face inconvenience through these clean activities. Sudhakar Shinde, additional municipal commissioner said, “The ward officials have been told to survey in their respective wards and check which roads have regular morning walkers. Make a list of such wards and carry out the cleaning activities before their arrival. The measures taken by the BMC along with washing roads have helped to reduce air pollution.”
The BMC owns 30 and has hired 100 water tankers, 17 sludge dewatering equipment and five mist-blowing machines for the process. Non-potable and recycled water, including water from sewage treatment plants, wells and borewells are used for the same. The BMC also conducts a deep cleaning drive every Saturday. The drive undertaken with the participation of citizens and non-governmental organisations has helped to keep roads clean in the city, claimed the civic official.
Shinde’s directives to prevent air pollution
Following Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s directives to prevent air pollution, the BMC started to wash the roads on November 3. Shinde instructed to wash 1000km of roads daily out of the city’s 2,050-km-long network. However, due to lack of funds, limited resources and challenges such as cleaning during non-peak hours, the BMC managed to wash only 500km of roads in the beginning.
