To check the breeding of dengue and malaria mosquitoes in water bodies around the railway tracks, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) provided a truck mounted power sprayer to the railways which spray insecticides. MCD commissioner K.S. Mehra, along with divisional railway manager, Delhi, Ashwani Lohani flagged off the mosquito terminator from New Delhi railway station on Thursday.

A special train named Mosquito Terminator would regularly take this truck around Delhi, which would be mounted on a low flat surface wagon.

The train started at 12 noon and passed through Sadar Bazar, Kishanganj, Sarai Rohilla, Patel Nagar, Delhi Cant, Palam, Shahabad Mohammadpur, Bijwasan, Gurgaon and came back to New Delhi in the evening.

“A lot of people live around railway tracks, particularly in JJ clusters. They are exposed to aedes and other types of mosquitoes leading to comparatively higher incidence of dengue and malaria. The water bodies formed along the tracks serve as a breeding ground for mosquitoes. The larvicides sprayed over these water bodies would check mosquito breeding in the most effective manner,” said Mehra.

The sprayers on the truck will sanitize the distance of 50 to 60 meters from the track. Each container can carry about 150 kilolitres of larvicides. Each container costs Rs 2 lakh.

MCD says that it would provide as many containers each day as required for effective spray till November when dengue cases come down.