Vijayawada Municipal Corporation adopts road washing strategy to improve AQI

Vijayawada: To tackle rising air pollution and keep the Air Quality Index (AQI) within satisfactory levels, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has adopted a new strategy of periodically washing major roads at important junctions along the busy MG (Bandar) Road and Karl Marx (Eluru) Road. The initiative aims to suppress dust particles and other pollutants, thereby improving the city's overall AQI.Officials said the decision was taken after a detailed review of air quality data for the winter months. During Dec and Jan, the AQI in Vijayawada frequently slipped into the ‘poor' category due to high concentrations of particulate matter (PM2.5) and carbon monoxide (CO)."Apart from Bandar Road and Eluru Road—the two busiest corridors with heavy vehicular movement, including VIP traffic—the civic body also washed other major stretches such as Swathi Road, Sitara Junction, and other areas that record high vehicle movement," VMC chief medical and health officer (CMHO) Dr K Arjuna Rao told TOI. He said the initiative, taken on the instructions of VMC commissioner HM Dhyanachandra, focuses on improving air quality by suppressing dust and pollutants through regular road cleaning using water tankers."For this purpose, the civic body deployed four exclusive water tankers—and up to eight at times—each with a 4,000-litre capacity, which are used to clean the busy Bandar and Eluru Road at regular intervals. An action plan was also prepared to cover pollution hotspots across all 64 wards at least once a fortnight," the CMHO added.Officials said plans are underway to increase the number of tankers and upgrade their capacity from 4,000 litres to 8,000 litres to cover more areas in the city.They noted that the road-washing initiative has already shown positive results, with the city consistently recording ‘satisfactory' AQI levels for the past fortnight. So far in Feb, no significant spike has been reported in PM2.5 and CO concentrations—Vijayawada's two major pollutants.