The Chennai Corporation has decided to transfer garbage accumulated in Athipet dumping yard on Vanagaram-Ambattur Road to the yard in Kodungaiyur.
The civic body has invited bids from private agencies for transferring the garbage in large tipper lorries from Athipet to Kodungaiyur. Officials of the civic body said the transfer of accumulated garbage is expected to prevent fires in the Athipet dumping yard this summer.
Problems pertaining to burning of garbage in the Athipet dumping yard and erratic waste clearance have been bothering residents of Ambattur.
Large mounts of garbage have accumulated in Athipet due to the dumping of municipal solid waste by the erstwhile Ambattur municipality in the past few years. Even after the merger of the Ambattur municipality with the Chennai Corporation, the Ambattur zone continues to dump 300 tonnes of garbage in Athipet daily.
After construction of a transfer station, the garbage generated in Ambattur will also be transferred to Kodungaiyur.
Residents of many localities, including Ayapakkam, Kalaivanar Nagar, ICF Colony and parts of Mogappair, are likely to heave a sigh of relief.
However, Perambur MLA A. Soundararajan said the transfer of garbage from Athipet to Kodungaiyur “is an insult to the people of Kodungaiyur”. As many as 5 lakh people of Kodungaiyur had been affected by the dumping of waste, he added. He suggested decentralisation of the waste-management system.
The Chennai Corporation had already planned to extend the existing dumping area of Kodungaiyur dumping yard to a 25-acre stretch. The proposal was part of its measures to cope with pollution caused by burning garbage in Kodungaiyur, after residents staged a road roko a few weeks ago. The civic body has also assured the residents that it will take efforts towards remediation and closure of the dumping yard soon.
Currently, 100 acres of the 269-acre plot in Kodungaiyur is used to dump garbage.
