Tamil Nadu   

Dumping of garbage on cremation ground, a burning problem near airport

— Photo: K. Manikandan

AWAITING a SOLUTION: Garbage dumped at the burial ground of Meenambakkam town panchayat near the Tirusulam Railway Station.

TAMBARAM: It is not uncommon to find issues concerning collection and disposal of garbage posing serious challenges to large urban local bodies that have a population of over a lakh. The common argument put across for such a situation is the enormous amount of garbage generated in their limits.

But even for the Meenambakkam town panchayat, the smallest urban pockets in the southern suburbs of Chennai with a population of just 3,609, problems relating to the collection and disposal of garbage seem to be unmanageable.

Sandwiched between the periphery of the Chennai Airport and the Grand Southern Trunk Road, the Meenambakkam town panchayat is spread over only 2.35 sq. km and the amount of garbage generated here is about two tonnes everyday.

Apart from the kitchen waste from houses, a fairly large volume of garbage originates from commercial establishments that include many eateries that cater to the needs of airport workers. In the absence of even an inch of land available for public use, authorities of the town panchayat have little option but to dump the garbage at a burial ground-cum-cremation shed.

Dumping of garbage inside the burial ground has been on for about a decade and now, garbage has completely taken over this facility with very little space for burial or cremation. Non-stop burning results in thick smoke that engulfs the Tirusulam railway station and also poses problems to residents of a Central Government quarters nearby.

Authorities of the Meenambakkam town panchayat said non-availability of land was the reason for the local body’s inability to go ahead ith important projects. They were unable to get the underground drainage project for the town as they could not locate even two grounds of land required for the pumping station.

Officials said widening of the GST Road was currently on and they were building a new compound wall around the burial ground. Once it was completed, the entire garbage would be removed and disposed of elsewhere and a resolution was recently passed by the town panchayat.

Senior officials of the Directorate of Town Panchayats said there was a proposal for an integrated compost yard for Pammal and Anakaputhur municipalities, Meenambakkam and Tiruneermalai town panchayats and Pozhichalur and Gowl Bazaar village panchayats.

They had identified a piece of land in Anakaputhur and once the project was completed, garbage problems in these places would be addressed to permanently. The project, still in the initial stages, would be on the lines of a similar facility in Ventakamangalam village near Vandalur for three municipalities.

The problems of garbage collection and disposal are not restricted only to Meenambakkam, but all 11 town panchayats of Tambaram taluk that come within Chennai Metropolitan Area.

Officials also said these local bodies were allotted about Rs. 20 lakh each for building scientific and modern compost yards and they were in various stages of completion.

A common landfill site was proposed for Sholinganallur, Pallikaranai and Perungudi town panchayats.

And some town panchayats near Tambaram could be included in the Venkatamangalam project, the officials added.

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