The Chennai Corporation is likely to identify a private player for collection of garbage in areas expected to be included in the city after its proposed expansion. Officials of the civic body said the decision was subject to the State government's approval.
Speaking at a meeting organised on Friday to sort out issues pertaining to conservancy operations of Neel Metal Fanalca (NMF), the officials warned that if the private firm did not improve garbage collection in the 58 wards of the city in the remaining six months it could be blacklisted. Conservancy operations had been deteriorating on account of the problems faced by the firm, they said.
Corporation Commissioner D.Karthikeyan told senior officials of NMF to identify deficiencies in conservancy operations in four zones of Pulianthope, Triplicane, Kodambakkam and Adyar, where NMF carries out conservancy operations.
Representatives of NMF attributed the deterioration of conservancy operations to poor maintenance of vehicles and equipment.
Civic body officials also reported a decrease in the number of sweepers and vehicles deployed by NMF in the four zones in the recent days. Only 225 out of 315 sweepers of Pulianthope zone attended work on Thursday.
The Triplicane zone had 140 out of 156; Kodambakkam had 155 out of 165 and Adyar had 225 out of 399 sweepers.
Three out of the ten compactors and 24 out of the 39 autos in Adyar zone were under repair on Thursday. So the civic body has been forced to undertake conservancy operations in the zones covered by the private firm.
Mayor M.Subramanian suggested that a team of corporation officials be formed to monitor the maintenance work carried out by NMF.
“The Corporation council resolved to release the 0.5 per cent of the bill retained by the civic body as NMF had requested funds for repair work. We must ensure that the Rs.15 lakh is being spent for that. The amount will be released in two weeks,” he added.
