‘Dust-free Delhi’ drive: MCD removes about 1,653 MT of waste in two days

New Delhi: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has removed 1,653 metric tonnes of silt and construction waste from across its 12 zones in two days as part of a special drive, officials said on Thursday.

Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena had earlier directed civic agencies, including the MCD, to launch the ‘Dust-Free Delhi’ drive to combat air pollution in the city. Stressing that dust was one of the major contributors to air pollution, Saxena asked the agencies to carry out the drive over the next seven to 10 days. In response to the directives from Lt Governor, the MCD removed 404.65 MT of waste on September 24 and 1,249.08 MT on September 25. The Shahdara South Zone emerged as the most active area with a total of 983.83 MT of waste removed. This included 122.25 MT on the first day and 861.58 MT on the second.

It was followed by the Keshavpuram Zone from where 161.80 MT of waste was removed — 92.80 MT on the first day and 69 MT on the second. The collected waste has been deposited at designated dumping sites for reprocessing and bio-remediation, marking an important step toward environmental sustainability, an official statement said.

The MCD faced challenges in executing this task, as de-silting efforts had not been undertaken for years, resulting in the accumulation of vast quantities of silt and waste, estimated in lakhs of tonnes,

Raj Niwas officials said.