Garbage collection hit

By R.K. Radhakrishnan

CHENNAI, AUG. 23. Garbage collection in central and south Chennai came to a standstill on Wednesday, as approach roads to the city's largest dumping yard at Perungudi, caved in trapping ``quite a few'' conservancy vehicles.

With the dumping yard rendered unusable, vehicles from the Corporation and the private multinational garbage collection firm, CES-Onyx, filled up transfer stations located in the city, on Monday and Tuesday. The problem was yet to be settled and garbage collection came to a virtual halt today, CES-Onyx officials and Chennai Corporation sources said. The Corporation Commissioner, Dr. J. Radhakrishnan, however, claimed that collection operations today were not affected.

As many as 20 to 25 vehicles of CES-Onyx were trapped in the dumping ground. Corporation and CES-Onyx representatives held a meeting today to sort out the problem. ``It is a problem that we are sorting out with the Chennai Corporation. Garbage collection has been affected as of now, but we are confident that clearance will be expedited once this is sorted out,'' says Mr. Robert Natali, General Manager, CES-Onyx. One of the terms in the contract stipulates that the civic body provide black-topped roads in the dumping ground.

Garbage laden trucks, which came to Perungudi right from early this week, could not dump garbage in the south Chennai dumping ground. Some dumped garbage just outside the yard. ``The approach roads were affected. This has been a problem during rainy season,'' says the Commissioner. But, as a temporary measure, the Corporation had taken steps to dump garbage and employ bull- dozers to get the vehicles unstuck, he added.

CES-Onyx came in for a fair amount of criticism, though the problem which had nothing to do with the working of the agency. Residents blocked the entry of CES-Onyx conservancy trucks into the zone 10 transfer station, where garbage had piled up high. The garbage pit in the transfer station, which has a capacity to hold 500 tonnes is already full, and so is most of the station area, including the proposed rest room for its employees.

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Section  : Southern States
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