New Delhi, Dec. 23 -- Plans to significantly expand Delhi's fleet of mechanical road-sweeping vehicles have been delayed by bureaucratic logjams, pushing the deployment of new machines to at least July-August 2026 - missing yet another pollution season and prolonging reliance on manual cleaning for thousands of kilometers of smaller roads, according to officials aware of the matter.

Currently, only about 76 mechanical road sweepers (MRS) are operational across various agencies, primarily cleaning 1,400 km of wider roads (over 60 feet) maintained by the Public Works Department (PWD), the people cited above said. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has initiated procurement of 14 additional units, but a larger sanctioned plan for 70 n...