Ahmedabad: Air purifiers to be installed near Pirana dumping site for traffic police

Looking at the health of traffic police staff deployed near the Pirana dump site, the Ahmedabad police department is going to install outdoor air purifiers at traffic points so that the deployed staff can breathe fresh air.

There is around 60 lakh metric tonnes of stinking waste which is spread across 80 acres at the Pirana site and the mountain of garbage is visible from quite a far distance. Plastic and toxic chemicals dumped at the site burn continuously, releasing toxic fumes into the air and making it difficult to breathe for the people who are located in proximity to the site.

The Pirana junction, which is hardly half a kilometre away from the site, is manned by traffic cops and it has become hard for them to work continuously on the field owing to the polluted air. A couple of weeks back, Akshayraj Makwan, DCP traffic, visited the junction and realised that his staff was facing breathing troubles due to the fumes in the air and in fact even he was affected on his first visit.

After the incident came to light, initially, the traffic cops deployed at the Pirana junction were given masks. However, the masks were found to be ineffective and were not helping the cops. After that, the police department made a proposal to an air purifier manufacturing company called Air Concept and two air purifiers – an outdoor air purifier and an indoor air purifier – were purchased.

Akshayraj Makwan, DCP traffic police department, said, "We will soon install the outdoor air purifier at Pirana junction so that our cops will get fresh air to breathe.

We will have received the device by the end of March and after it is installed, the outdoor air purifier will be able to purify the air around a 500-meter radius."

Meanwhile, the indoor air purifier will be installed at the Kalupur traffic police station as it located near the Kalupur railway station and there's always a rush of vehicles there.

STINKY ISSUE

There is around 60 lakh metric tonnes of stinking waste which is spread across 80 acres at the Pirana site and the mountain of garbage is visible from quite a far distance