CHENNAI: The Chennai Corporation on Tuesday, launched battery-operated tricycles for door to door collection of garbage, using Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds.
Public sector banks such as the State Bank of India have funded the project, to improve solid waste management in the city. More firms both from the public and private sector are expected to fund the project to promote source segregation and door to door collection of municipal solid waste in the city.
Chennai Corporation Commissioner G. Prakash launched the battery operated tricycles for 14 locations in the city. Civic officials said they have requested more such vehicles under CSR funds to promote source segregation.
Each of the battery-operated vehicles will have a range of 45 km, collecting at least 300 kg of waste. The battery-operated tricycles will have six different containers to segregate waste. The segregated waste collected, will be used for composting in many of the 700 parks across the city.
Residents in many of the narrow streets in the city have complained about inadequate collection of garbage at their doorsteps. More battery-operated tricycles are required for 33,000 streets in the city.
Each of the battery-operated vehicles costs ₹1 lakh. The city requires more than 2,000 such tricycles as well as additional manpower for improving the door to door collection of municipal solid waste.
The tricycles have been handed over by Pi Beam, a startup incubated at the IIT-Madras Incubation Cell.
As of now, the Chennai Corporation has just 411 tricycles to carry out door to door collection of municipal solid waste. This is inadequate for door to door collection of waste from more than 12 lakh residential and commercial properties. Door to door collection of waste from households of over 18 lakh residents in the slum neighbourhoods remains a challenge in the city.
