The Greater Chennai Corporation is planning to launch manjapai (yellow bag) vending machines across the city with support from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) and other agencies.
As part of World Environment Day celebrations, Additional Chief Secretary Supriya Sahu launched the manjapai vending machines at Koyambedu market.
Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi and CMDA Member Secretary Anshul Mishra were present.
The machines dispense manjapai on insertion of ₹10 coin. Based on the response, similar machines would be installed at key locations across all districts, including Chennai, across the State on private-public-partnership mode.
In the last one year, 52.67 tonnes of banned plastic was seized in Chennai and a fine of ₹97.07 lakh collected by the Corporation. In the past one year, 71 shops were closed following the sale of banned plastic bags in Koyambedu market complex. Raids were conducted in various market areas of the city.
“A comprehensive study of crowded and market places will be taken up shortly. We may install big cloth bag vending machines at 15 places in the first phase. We have to assess the requirement for cloth bags in all market areas. A big machine has the capacity to hold 250 bags. One manjapai is sold for ₹10 now. We will explore various options to make it more affordable for the residents,” said an official.
Mr. Bedi said the focus of the Corporation on the occasion of World Environment Day was to make the citizens reduce usage of plastics by promoting affordable alternatives. “The health teams will continue to check for sale of banned plastic carry bags across all areas of the city and push for cloth material like the manjapai culture,” he said.
