Only 18% of Delhi’s population covered by mechanical road sweepers: CEEW

Delhi’s mechanical road sweeper (MRS) machines cover only 18% of the population, according to a recent study by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), a Delhi-based research group.

The study also recommended that expansion of the system must prioritise dust hotspots.

The government uses MRS machines to clean roads to reduce dust pollution, as part of the larger air pollution control programme. 

“52 operational MRSMs collectively sweep nearly 1,200 km of road in Delhi. CEEW mapped a 50-metre buffer around these routes to calculate the population in the immediate vicinity. A 50 m buffer was chosen as coarse resuspended particles that the MRSMs remove do not disperse more than 30–50 m.

The analysis shows that only around 18% of Delhi’s population — approximately four million people out of approximately 22 million — currently benefit from MRSM operations,” the CEEW said in a statement.  

About 42% of the current sweeping coverage is on residential areas, while commercial areas, where dust resuspension rates are higher due to greater vehicle traffic, are substantially underserved, as per the CEEW. 

“The current deployment of MRSMs is determined by Right-of-Way (width of the road) norms alone, with no prioritisation based on observed levels of dust pollution,” the statement said. 

As per the CEEW, 10 of the 13 pollution hotspots identified by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) cite dust as a major pollutant, including areas such as Anand Vihar, Ashok Vihar, and Mundka, among others. Aligning the MRSM route-planning mapping with these hotspots will improve operational efficiency, it added. 

“Delhi’s planned MRSM expansion reflects a genuine commitment to tackling one of the city’s most persistent air quality challenges, and the CAQM norms are technically sound. However, an expanded fleet operating under the same logic as the current 52 machines may not deliver optimum improvement. The success of this expansion hinges on how routes are planned, how waste is handled, and how road conditions are maintained,” the statement said.