Chennai: At least five city zones with over 4 million residents are still struggling with increasing garbage piles as conservancy workers of Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) continue their standoff for over a week.
The garbage issue persists in five city zones, with more than 3,000 conservancy workers boycotting protest and work. Affected areas include Raja Muthaiah road, Chintadripet, Wall tax road (Zones 5 & 6), parts of Ambattur like Mogappair east and Collector Nagar (Zone 7), Anna Nagar (Zone 8), and Teynampet (Zone 9).
Despite the early start of operations by private contractor Chennai Enviros (Ramky) before the official deadline on October 8, garbage accumulation remains a problem. With approximately 1,200 tonnes of waste generated daily in these two zones, an estimated 6,000 tonnes of uncollected garbage are still piled up, causing frustration among residents.
Chennai Enviros signed a contract with GCC on June 10, with 120 days to commence full operations and an additional 110 days for stabilization. Due to service disruption caused by protests from National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) workers, the contractor initiated phased garbage collection this week as per GCC's urgent request.
On Wednesday, Chennai Enviros deployed various equipment and a workforce of around 2,800 conservancy workers to handle cleaning and transportation tasks. The Project Head, Parisutham Vedamuthu, mentioned that garbage collection started in four wards collecting 1,400 tonnes of garbage, with plans to cover six more wards by the week's end.
The company is currently using temporary vehicles for door-to-door collection due to insufficient Battery-Operated Vehicles (BOVs). Residents express deep concerns about the delay in garbage clearance, with some resorting to dumping garbage near bins.
Zone 6 Chairperson, R Saritha, assured that the contractor's working hours have been extended due to the large garbage volumes, and additional BOVs have been provided by GCC to speed up garbage clearance in all wards of Zones 5 and 6.
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