New Delhi: The Delhi government has approved the deployment of 32 high-capacity, modern cleaning machines, including two multipurpose dredgers from Finland, to tackle pollution in drains that contribute to contamination of the Yamuna.

According to an official statement, all the machines will be operational by March, and the drive will begin from the Najafgarh drain, which is the highest contributor of pollution into the river.

The drive will start from January and expand in a phased manner to other drains and selected stretches of the Yamuna, it said.

The core objective of the initiative is to stop untreated sludge, silt and solid waste from entering the Yamuna by intensifying mechanised cleaning of major drains, the statement added.

These machines are designed for deep desilting, sludge extraction, weed clearance and cleaning of waterlogged and inaccessible stretches, areas that have historically remained beyond the reach of conventional equipment.