Kolkata: 20 more water sprinklers on cards to keep air clean

KOLKATA: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is set to buy 20 sprinkler vehicles to combat air pollution in the city this winter. Spraying of water on the streets is one of the key measures suggested by environment experts and the state pollution control board to keep suspended particulate matter and dust in check.
Though KMC has been sprinkling water in winter for some time now, the coverage area is not substantial owing to paucity of adequate truck-mounted water sprinklers. Once these 20 trucks are purchased, it will allow the civic body to cover all major roads. The proposal to buy the vehicles was passed at the mayor-in-council meeting held on Friday.

According to Debabrata Majumdar, the mayor-in-council member overseeing the KMC solid waste management, the civic body was in urgent need to buy the sprinklers to combat air pollution in several parts of the city. "We need to make these vehicles operational as soon as possible to fight the growing air pollution in Kolkata," said Majumdar.
Once these vehicles are procured, the department will operate these machines for washing city's arterial roads that are the most polluted. "We are in touch with the West Bengal Pollution Control Board experts and will chalk out a plan to wash streets where the vehicle density has become a cause for concern, particularly during winters," the civic official said.
According to a KMC official, the truck-mounted sprinklers will be doing the rounds on thoroughfares like Netaji Subhas Road, Chittaranjan Avenue, APC Roy Road, Mahatama Gandhi Road, Strand Road, JL Nehru Road, AJC Bose Road, Asutosh Mukherjee Road, Diamond Harbour Road, NSC Bose Road (Tollygunge) and Raja S C Mullick Road, among other areas. These machines will also be operated along several stretches of EM Bypass.