CHENNAI: The residents of Royapuram and Thiru Vi Ka Nagar zones, where the city corporation recently privatised solid waste management, have been dealing with overflowing garbage on the streets after waste collection came to a halt two weeks ago. Officials, who attributed this to ‘transition issues’, said the waste collection will be streamlined next week onwards.
The collection of solid waste was handed over to Delhi MSW Solutions Limited of the Ramky group in July after a resolution to this effect was adopted by the council in June. Among the the worst-affected areas was Ritchie Street, where electronic and solid waste have piled up.
The shopkeepers said no one had collected waste for the last several days. After multiple complaints were raised, a temporary clean-up drive was arranged for a day last week, following which the issue has again resurfaced.
“Customers are hesitant to even walk in. There are around 5,000 shops here. It was far better when the city corporation managed waste collection,” said Vinod, a shopkeeper.
TNIE found that sanitary workers hired by the private contractor were only now undergoing training for operating the battery-operated vehicles (BOVs) used for waste collection.
A zonal corporation official from Royapuram said, “The work has now been fully handed over to Ramky. They have begun operations, but mapping of routes is still going on, leading to backlogs in a few places, which will be addressed.”
Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar officials also acknowledged delays and assured that waste collection will be streamlined from next week.
The city corporation on June 30 adopted a resolution to outsource solid waste collection and transportation, including door-to-door collection of segregated waste, street and footpath cleaning, silt removal along the drains in the roadside, and disposal of disaster, garden, and domestic hazardous waste. The contract was awarded to Delhi MSW Solutions Limited, a Ramky Group venture, under the DBFOT (Design, Build, Finance, Operate, and Transfer) model at an initial annual quote of `276 crore. Waste management in the two zones were previously taken up directly by the city corporation.
Meanwhile, the conservancy workers who works with the city corporation in these two zones were in a strike against the ongoing privatisation of solid waste management operations.