The Chennai Corporation will soon start massive fogging operation to control the density of adult mosquitoes.
The operations will cover all areas of the city simultaneously during the same day on a weekly basis. Mayor M.Subramanian said that the civic body's drive was part of the anti-mosquito operations to tackle the problems arising out of the intermittent rains.
The civic body has been obtaining relevant data, through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, on the number of cases of malaria and dengue and continuously reorienting its strategy.
According to officials, the massive fogging operation is in response to the malaria and dengue cases being reported in the city on account of the increase in the number of temporary breeding sources during the north east monsoon.
Fogging machines mounted on autorickshaws would cover 30 km of roads in a day. At least two hundred such auto rickshaws would carry out fogging operations covering all the roads of the city simultaneously.
The effort would be in addition to the regular fogging operations done by over 1,100 malaria workers in the city. A vehicle mounted fogging machine of the civic body normally covers 4 km in a single load. The auto rickshaws would move at a speed lesser than 20 km per hour and cover 10 km for a single load of fogging chemicals.
Covering divisions having a large number of streets would be challenging, said an official. Fogging of areas such as Kodungaiyur, Villivakkam, Saligramam and Velachery where the total length of the streets is higher would be difficult, the official added.
