Efforts have been intensified to keep Delhi clean and green before the summit.
New Delhi
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has identified 44 roads to further strengthen cleanliness and beautification in the wake of the upcoming G20 summit. According to the MCD, they have intensified the preparation to keep the vicinity clean and green before the G20 summit, which has 15 days to go.
The G20 summit is slated to take place on 9-10 September at the recently inaugurated state-of-the-art International Exhibition and Convention Centre Bharat Mandapam (IECC) at Pragati Maidan in Delhi. It will be the first-ever G20 summit to be held in India as well as in South Asia.
In view of the summit, the MCD has identified 44 roads and will maintain the cleanliness and beautification of these roads. Earlier, a total of 26 roads were identified for special cleaning arrangements; now, 18 more roads have been added to this sequence. So, in all, 44 roads have been identified by the MCD.
Officials of the MCD told The Sunday Guardian that all these roads will be maintained by nodal officers appointed by the MCD. The nodal officers, along with their teams and multi-purpose vehicles, will do the cleaning work, control the dust, and take care of the roads.
Officials further said that the team shall look after the proper cleaning of gully gratings, bell mouths, C channels, etc. They will also perform ploughing and removal of unwanted growth from wild ants, bushes, etc. daily. MCD is also running a special drive on missing kerb stones, manholes, gully grating, and/or repair of footpaths, central verges, etc., which will be done with existing resources or with follow-up action with their counterpart in PWD.
The added roads are: Sector 22 Road, Dwarka; Vasant Kunj Road; Mehrauli-Gurugram Road (upto Aya Nagar Border); Shankar Road; Nelson Mandela Marg; Vasant Kunj Mall Road; Bisham Pitamah Marg; Abdul Ghaffar Khan Marg; Velodrome Road; Satyagraha Road; Mahatma Gandhi Marg from Arihant Marg to NH-48; and many more.
The Delhi police has hired disaster management vehicles. Ahead of the G20 Summit, six disaster management vehicles will be pressed into service along the routes to be taken by the foreign delegates and nearby venues.
These vehicles will be manned by individuals trained in disaster management. “Two to three men will be present in each vehicle. The vehicle will be deployed on the routes and near the venues. An inspector-rank officer will coordinate with the personnel in charge of these vehicles,” an official said.
The official added that the main purpose of these vehicles will be to tackle emergencies in the shortest period of time. “If a tree falls on the route where delegates are to pass, the area traffic inspector will ensure that the disaster management vehicles reach there in time and remove the tree quickly to provide seamless traffic movement for the delegates.”
DMRC beautifying metro stations:
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has also beautified the Airport Express Line corridor and metro stations. The DMRC has identified 20 stations from which foreign guests are likely to travel. Special arrangements have been made at these stations. Cutouts of the G20 summit have been placed near these stations so that people can also be made aware of the relevance of the G20 conference. Stations around Pragati Maidan have been decorated with G20 conference-themed logos. These stations include Indraprastha, Mandi House, Laxmi Nagar, Nirman Vihar, Preet Vihar, Akshardham, Rajiv Chowk, Central Secretariat, Supreme Court Metro Station, etc. Apart from this, boards of the G20 conference have been installed near the entry gate and ticket counters of all other stations.
The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) will issue uniforms and duty passes ahead of the G20 summit. NDMC field workers will do G20-themed uniforms and carry colour-coded duty passes ahead of summit-related meetings, expected to be held between 3 and 10 September.
Around 3,000 sanitation workers, gardeners, and Group D field workers will be seen in orange T-shirts with green collars paired with grey trousers, said a senior NDMC official. The uniforms will have the G20 logo on the front and the NDMC logo on the back.
NDMC vice chairman Satish Upadhyay said the new uniforms are expected to be given out by the end of this week. The civic body overseeing Lutyens’ Delhi has also initiated the process for making duty passes for its workers who will be deployed on duty during this period.