Local gov't in Indian capital territory vows to repair roads, provide e-scooters for last-mile connectivity

NEW DELHI, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal Saturday said the Indian capital territory was all set to get a makeover.

While launching the Delhi renovation drive aimed at repairing and beautifying the national capital, Kejriwal said deep-scrubbing and mechanical sweeping will be used to clean up roads and footpaths.

"We are set to hire 100 mechanized road sweepers. Roads under Public Works Department (PWD) stretching across 1,400 km will be repaired. Footpaths will be cleaned thrice a week," Kejriwal said during a briefing, adding that 250 machines will help in cleaning smaller, non-PWD roads.

Kejriwal said manholes, subways and electric polls along streets will all be renovated starting April 1.

Kejriwal said the entire renovation project would conclude in six months and would cost over 552 million U.S. dollars for the first year.

The chief minister also said that to improve last-mile connectivity, the government was set to introduce a pilot project in west Delhi's Dwarka and around 1,500 e-scooters will be available across 250 locations.

"People can use integrated tickets. You can use the same ticket to travel on buses, e-scooters and the metro. You can pick up any of these self-driven e-scooters from these 250 locations. The speed is 60 km per hour," Kejriwal said.