The Perumbakkam Main Road is a crucial link for many motorists in the last few years, but driving along the stretch connecting Medavakkam and Sholinganallur, has become rather unpleasant due to the garbage dumped on its margins. The stretch has been witness to a huge growth in the volume of traffic, thanks to development of Information Technology sector along Rajiv Gandhi Salai.
Its spin-off has been the mushrooming of new residential areas along the road in Medavakkam, Jalladampettai and Perumbakkam, all of them village panchayats.
This growth in residential localities and commercial complexes has also directly contributed to the increase in the generation of solid waste.
The facilities in the panchayats are not in proportion to their growth and hence garbage collection and disposal present an acute problem. Margins of the road have become a convenient spot for dumping of waste from eateries, meat and poultry shops and shopping complexes.
According to V. Madhu, who drops his son on his motorcycle at a CBSE school nearby, the garbage dumped in the open poses great risk for motorists, especially two-wheeler riders.
In a bid to solve the problem, the Perumbakkam village panchayat officials installed a warning board on the margins of the road.
It did deter the offenders for a brief while, but not for long. Officials at the St. Thomas Mount Panchayat Union said that in cash-starved village panchayats, that also did not have adequate staff to handle solid waste, it was not possible to have personnel on duty throughout the night and day to prevent miscreants from dumping waste.
Officials said that in the absence of compost yards and designated landfill sites, most rural local bodies in Chennai's southern suburbs had no other option but to dump garbage in the open.
