Besant Nagar beach is the cleanest among the seven beaches in the city, according to the conservancy data compiled by the Greater Chennai Corporation.
Neelankarai beach has received the last rank on various aspects of cleanliness among the city beaches.
The Greater Chennai Corporation has started deploying special teams for monitoring the conservancy operations in the seven beaches of Marina, Besant Nagar, Thiruvanmiyur, Tiruvottiyur, Palavakkam, Neelankarai and Akkarai. More beaches in north Chennai will be included in the conservancy operations shortly.
The civic body has intensified beach cleaning to prevent plastic waste from reaching the ocean and polluting the marine ecosystem.
According to data compiled by the Corporation, all the 336 shops in Besant Nagar have started segregating waste, before handing it over to the conservancy teams. All the shops have stopped dumping garbage on the beach after the Corporation created awareness about problems caused to the marine ecosystem because of plastic waste. The manpower deployed for sweeping, door-to-door collection, cleaning toilets and the number of machines for sand sweeping have been increased in Besant Nagar.
The conservancy operators had not deployed sand cleaning machines in north Chennai beach of Thiruvanmiyur. The beach cleaning activity in Palavakkam, Neelankarai and Akkarai has deteriorated because of inadequate manpower.
Residents have requested the civic body to direct the conservancy operators to intensify mass cleaning on such stretches. Residents have demanded the Corporation to prevent garbage accumulation along the rivers such as the Adyar, the Cooum, the Kosasthalaiyar and Buckingham Canal to stop pollution of beach sands.
On the Marina beach, more than 200 shops were yet to start segregating waste. Beachgoers have demanded more manpower on the beaches such as Marina.
