Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Thursday said the annual sapling plantation drive in the national capital will begin on July 9 from the campus of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute.

The city government is close to delivering on its promise of planting two crore saplings in the national capital in five years, he said.?

"Before the state elections, we promised to plant two crore saplings. We planted 32 lakh in 2020-21, 35 lakh in 2021-2022, 50 lakh in 2022-23 and the target is 52 lakh in 2023-24," he said at a press conference.

"We are confident that we will end up planting more than two crore saplings in the five-year period starting 2019," he said.