To keep a check on breeding of mosquitoes around railway tracks in Delhi, which is battling an outbreak of dengue and chikungunya, Northern Railways flagged off its ‘Mosquito Terminal’ special train on Friday.
The train, a collaboration between the Delhi Division of Northern Railways and the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), will check mosquito breeding in water bodies along the railway track in the Delhi area.
The ‘Mosquito Terminator on Wheels’ will cover a distance about 100 km in each cycle over a period of two days.
The train was jointly flagged off by A.K. Puthia, general manager of Northern Railway; Arun Arora, divisional railway manager, Delhi; and P.K. Goel, Commissioner of SDMC.
Truck-mounted train
“The special train will mitigate health hazards of breeding of mosquitoes in the burrow pits alongside construction sites of rail tracks and as a measure to cater to public health and safety of officials and people residing near railway tracks,” Mr. Arora said.
Mr. Arora added that a truck-mounted power sprayer provided by the SDMC is loaded onto a special wagon, which has a low flat surface to mount any truck or vehicle.
“This special train will spray insecticides to sanitise the water bodies up to a distance of 50-60 meters along the tracks of Delhi Ring Railway via Hazrat Nizamuddin, Lajpat Nagar, Sewa Nagar, Lodhi Colony, Delhi Safdarjung, Patel Nagar, Delhi Kishanganj, Dayabasti and culminate at New Delhi on Friday,” Mr. Arora said.
In its subsequent rounds, the train will cover other areas of Delhi NCR up to October 15 such as Dayabasti, Delhi Sarai Rohilla, Delhi Cantt., Palam, Gurgaon, Adarsh Nagar, Badli, Shahdara, Tilak Bridge, Lawrence Road etc.
The divisional railway manager said that a ‘high-level special permission’ was taken to run the special train.
