Chennai: With the garbage dumped in the Sembakkam dumpyard completely removed, the land is all set to be handed over to the PWD.
The machinery set-up to clear the garbage has been dismantled and removed from the spot.
Speaking to News Today, Sembakkam Municipality Sanitary Inspector, Nagaraj, said the project was completed at a cost of Rs 2.13 crore. He claimed that the local body has been declared as garbage-free now.
“Our aim is to make sure that the municipality is plastic-free by the end of this year. We have removed all the dustbins in the locality and have effectively implemented door-to-door collection of trash. There are incidents where residents have some grievances and it is attended to at the earliest. People are cooperating better than we expected,” he said.
He further said so far non-bio-degradable waste was being collected for only one day – Wednesday.
“After getting the feedback from the public, from this week non-bio-degradable waste will be collected Saturday as well,” he added.
Sembakkam Municipality Commissioner M R Vasanthy said to make door-to-door collection all the more effective, the usage of tricycles (51) and pushcarts (31) will be stopped, and instead LCV and battery-operated vehicles (BOVs) will be used.
“This will be implemented next month and the work order to procure five BOVs have been given. LCVs will be used on hire basis to collect garbage till we buy the vehicles on our own,” she said.
She further said bio-degradable pits are being built at strategic locations so that the collected waste can be converted into manure to be given to the residents to help them in terrace gardening.
She further said the associations, too, have assured to reduce the usage of plastic in the coming days and have extended their support for source segregation.
“At present, 25 tonnes of burnable waste is being sent to a cement factory in Ariyalur and the transportation is quite expensive. We hope that this will come down in the future as the amount of garbage will reduce,” she added.
DUMP TRICK
Nagaraj said even though they were doing door-to-door collection, there are a few residents and vendors who still discard their waste out in the open.
Recently, we found a pile of waste dumped near the Tambaram-Velacheri Main Road. We found a few bills which indicated from where the garbage was dumped. We took the garbage and dumped it back at the entrance of the shop and have warned them not to do so in the future. Fines have been levied on shops not abiding by norms.
BIO-MINING PROCESS
Work on the removal of garbage from the dumpyard using bio-mining began in February this year. The move was made after the NGT ordered the closure of the dumpyard on the lake. Following this, experts from Anna University were consulted and the Commissionerate of Municipal Administration (CMA) gave the green light for the project.
In the project, close to 35,000 tonnes of waste was cleared from the dumpyard from above and below the ground. The clearing was done on the design, build, own, operate and transfer concept.