Inside a night shift that sweeps the capital: ‘It feels like I have fainted’

‘Difficulties during peak pollution’

It’s around 9 pm, and PM2.5 levels in the area have pushed air quality  into the ‘poor’ category — a long way from the 60 microgrammes per cubic metre that signals clean air. Pollution peaks often complicate operations. “There are difficulties during pollution peak periods,” says a supervisor, adding that workers wear masks in such conditions.

At around 10 pm, the machine (route code HQEM_HQEM_4498) eases out of the dock onto Maa Anand Mai Marg. Beneath the vehicle, rotating brushes lower towards the road surface while suction pipes and water nozzles slide into position, part of a nightly routine repeated across Delhi.

A route supervisor shows how the large brush with bristles disturbs the settled dust while a suction pump pulls it into the vehicle’s container. “Water is released after sweeping so that once the dust is removed, the road is washed to prevent its resuspension,” he says.

From a distance, the machine appears to glide quietly through empty roads. In reality, it is part of a tightly coordinated, labour-intensive operation involving multiple workers, repeated dumping trips, manual intervention, and constant adjustments to traffic and road conditions.

Once sweeping begins, the machine slows, crawling at about 8 kmph. Saravan (25), a sanitation worker, and the supervisor step down from the cabin, walking alongside the vehicle to guide the driver, monitor the rotating brushes, and assess road conditions. A shovel hangs from the front of the machine. If dust is not collected due to obstacles, Saravan pushes it manually. “We almost travel 30 km on foot and sit occasionally for about 8 km in the vehicle. Even during peak winters and summer pollution, we have to work only by covering our faces,” he says.

Despite mechanisation, each MRSM still requires a driver, a sanitation worker, and a supervisor. On the road, the workers’ faces are hidden behind cloth masks, with no specialised personal protective equipment in sight.

At some sections, trucks, buses and commercial carriers continue to ply the stretch, disturbing settled dust each time they pass. “The machine works better depending on the quality of the roads. The better the road, the better its efficiency,” the supervisor says. Uneven surfaces, broken stretches, and construction activity frequently disrupt sweeping and force route adjustments. Each vehicle typically covers between 50 km and 70 km in a night, of which 35 km should be actively swept, according to Delhi’s Environment Department. The remaining time is spent navigating traffic, stopping for manual clearing, or travelling to dumping sites.

From Maa Anand Mai Marg and Kalkaji Mandir, the machine moves through Govindpuri, the Kalkaji bus depot, Indira Kalyan Vihar, the ESI Hospital stretch, and nearby industrial pockets. By around 2 am, it reaches the Okhla landfill, completing one full round. In this round, 1,200 kg of dust has been collected. “The collected dust is usually higher. Even now the container wasn’t full,” says Saravan, as the driver empties the load amid multiple dust mounds deposited by other vehicles.

At the landfill, Chandrashekhar, a junior engineer with the MCD, explains what happens next. “The dust and loose soil brought here are deposited and then levelled using JCBs and other heavy machinery. Paths are created over the levelled material,” he says. Dust that mixes with municipal waste is sent for bio-remediation. “After bio-remediation, the waste is segregated and reused. The biodegradable waste is used to prepare manure,” he says.

For the driver, however, the night is far from over. “When I reach home, my condition is such that it feels like I’ve fainted,” says Yasin (35), who has been driving MRSMs for three to four years. “Breaks rarely exceed ten minutes during the eight-hour night shift. The vehicles run every day. We manage cough and cold, and try to cover our faces,” he says. At home, his wife and seven-year-old daughter wait. “They worry a lot when pollution and winter are at their peak and I have to go out working,” he says.

‘This route is very dirty today’

Nearly 30 kilometres away, it’s another night and a similar scene unfolds in Delhi’s Najafgarh zone. Here, the difficulties are sharper. At 10 pm, a fleet of five MRSMs departs from Dwarka Sector 3. Earlier seven in number, two vehicles have been shifted to the Central Zone.

The Indian Express accompanied one of these MRSMs (route code MCD_MCD_3535_M) from Goyla Dairy through Deenpur village, Jhatikara More, Chhawla drain, Roshanpura, and Chhawla Stand. It’s a bumpy ride. “This route is very dirty today,” says Amit, the driver, over a phone call to his supervisor. One side of the road is occupied by local vendors and parked vehicles. Along the central verge, cows feed from plastic bags.

The sanitation inspector, in a green reflector vest, steps down repeatedly, shooing away cattle and clearing cow dung with a rusty shovel. “We try to come after 10 pm so traffic reduces, but many times the road is blocked. This is the dirtiest area of the zone because of the dairy nearby,” says MCD supervisor Dharamveer. Large trucks carrying chaff pass through the night, dropping debris along the way. “Even if we clean it, after a few minutes the dust returns,” he says.

Inside the cabin, Amit repeatedly switches the brush on and off as garbage clogs the vacuum. When waste piles up, the sanitation worker removes it manually and dumps it on the roadside. The unpaved arterial roads nearby, Dharamveer adds, make dust mitigation almost impossible. “No matter how much we try to polish the road, its dust will return sooner or later,” he says. Throughout the route, all three men provide real-time updates on WhatsApp groups, sometimes with geo-tagged photographs taken in front of the MRSM.

Two hours into the shift, the vehicle breaks down when a pipe snaps. “The machines are already eight years old. Their lifespan is 8-10 years,” says an official on site. At the dump site in Dwarka Sector 12, an open stretch beside an MCD dhalao, dust lies uncovered. “Our job is to dump the dust on land allotted by the MCD. From here, it is taken to the Okhla landfill,” an official says.