MrKejriwal, who inaugurated the “Greening Delhi” initiative, said the move will deal with road dust, which is one of the major sources of air pollution in the national capital. A senior government official said that bald patches of road will be greened to reduce the pollution caused by road dust.

MrKejriwal said that vacuum cleaning of roads will also begin from Saturday so that no dust will cause air pollution in the capital. “Congrats Delhi. Vacuum cleaning and greening of PWD roads begins. Greening will complete by Oct, vacuum cleanin (sic) on all roads in 2 months,” he tweeted. Making a political pitch well ahead of next year’s municipal polls, the Delhi CM said his government was cleaning 1,260 km of PWD roads and next year would clean MCD’s roads after winning municipal polls.

While announcing the first phase of the odd-even scheme in December last year, the government had said it would carry out vacuum-cleaning of roads, aimed at bringing down the level of dust kicked up during sanitation routines that contribute a lot to air pollution, especially during summer.

The decision, part of a series of measures announced by the government along with the odd-even car rationing formula, was approved by the Cabinet in February this year and the PWD was authorised to switch to advanced methods of cleaning. Delhi Public Works Department minister Satyendra Jain said the “Greening Delhi” initiative was taken by the horticulture wing of his department. Under the initiative, greening of about 120 acres of roadside areas has been planned.

“At present, the PWD is maintaining about 1,260 km of roads, including central verges, side verges and the kuchcha portion under flyovers. Many bald patches on central verges as well as in the side verges need to be greened to reduce pollution,” an official statement said.

The Delhi government move comes ahead of the April 15-30 second phase of the odd-even scheme for vehicles.