“Mosquito Terminator” to check breeding near railway tracks

Two weeks after a domestic breeding checker lost his life to dengue, Northern Railway and the South Delhi Municipal Corporation have come together to prevent mosquito breeding in order to curb the deadly disease.

They have started a special train called the “Mosquito Terminator” to check breeding in water bodies along the tracks in Delhi for the safety of rail passengers and the people living along the tracks.

The “Mosquito Terminator” has a truck-mounted power sprayer which sprays larvicide along the railway tracks.

The train will pass through Sarai Rohilla, Patel Nagar, Safdarjung, Kishanganj, Lajpat Nagar, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Adarsh Nagar, Rathdhana, Shahdara, Palam and Gurgaon.

The train has a low and flat surface so that a truck or any other vehicle can be mounted on it.

The spraying will be completed in four rounds in September and October, coinciding with the time when dengue and other vector-borne disease are at their peak.

“A large number of people live near the tracks, particularly in jhuggi-jhopri clusters, and it is not possible to cover large tracks manually. It is very important for us to deal with the breeding grounds of dengue in and around these tracks because people staying nearby are exposed to Aedes and other types of mosquitoes, leading to a comparatively higher incidence of dengue and malaria,” said a senior health officer from the South Delhi Municipal Corporation.

Civic body officials said Railways will run the train regularly as part of the efforts to fight the spread of vector-borne diseases.