Madurai Corporation gets new vehicles for garbage removal

The Corporation received five tractors and a mini-excavator all at a cost of Rs.50 lakh here on Saturday.

At a brief function, Ministers ‘Sellur’ K. Raju and R.B. Udaya Kumar presented the keys to the drivers in the presence of Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao, Commissioner Sandeep Nanduri and others.

Briefing the media persons, the Commissioner said that the city, which has 100 wards, has a little over 3,000 conservancy workers. The solid waste removed from the wards had to be transported to Vellakal through lorries and tractors.

Apart from clearing garbage, encroachments in channels were removed with the help of excavators. Wherever the passage was situated in narrow stretches, heavy vehicles could not access.

Thus, the mini-excavator had been purchased from the general fund with which even small channels could be cleared of any kind of encroachment, he added.

Every day, over 600 metric tons of waste was removed and the Corporation was in the process of procuring more dumper bins.

Presently, there were 120 dumper blazers and dipper lorries were used in the clearing operation, health officials said.

Deputy Commissioner Shanti, City Health Officer Senthil Kumar, City Engineer Madhuram, MLAs V.V. Rajan Chellappa, Saravanan and Periapullan also participated.