Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in NCR and adjoining areas on Wednesday issued rules for road-owning and maintenance agencies for deployment and utilisation of mechanized road sweeping machines to reduce air pollution caused by road dust, officials said.The commission noted that road dust is a dominant contributor to coarse particulate pollutant (PM10) and remains significant contributor in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) also, particularly during the drier months.“Inadequate and non-uniform road sweeping practices contribute to elevated ambient particulate matter levels, thereby adversely impacting the overall air quality in the National Capital Region (NCR). Effective mechanised road sweeping is an essential air pollution abatement intervention for the NCR, which has the measurable potential to reduce road dust and consequently lower PM10 and PM2.5 levels,” a senior CAQM official said.“The study of CSIR-CRRI and CSIR-NEERI also recommended several actions to control the dust pollution which, inter-alia, included operation of mechanized road sweeping machines on the roads,” the official added.According to the norms, the mechanised road sweeping machines should be deployed according to the road width for effectiveness of dust control efforts.“Roads in the NCR vary widely in Right of Way (RoW). A RoW-appropriate deployment strategy of MRSMs is necessary to ensure efficient removal of visible dust on roads. Machines should be equipped with an effective particulate matter dustfiltration system to prevent re-entrainment of PM during sweeping operations,” the notification said.“Only CNG fuelled or electric variant MRSMs should be inducted in the new fleet for the sweeping operations. The machines should be able to operate for at least 8-hour on a shift basis. The day and schedule of sweeping of roads shall be declared in advance for convenience of the public,” it added.
