Starting Monday, Chennai Corporation will take over charge of conservancy operations in two divisions of Teynampet zone from private conservancy operator, Ramky Enviro Engineers. The civic body’s move is expected to have a big impact on conservancy operations in the rest of the 426 sq km of the city in the days to come.
Negative feedback
According to Corporation sources, the decision to remove Ramky from the two divisions has been taken based on feedback from residents of several streets covered by the private operator.
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The two divisions to be taken over from Ramky are no. 110 and no. 112. The boundary of division no. 110 is marked by roads such as Harrington Road, Valluvar Kottam High Road, Nungambakkam High Road, Jagannathan Road, Tank Bund Road and Kodambakkam High Road.
Division no. 112 has Periyar Paadhai, Sivan Koil Street, Vanniyar Street, Choolaimedu High Road, NSK Salai, and Vellalar Street as its boundaries.
Ramky began conservancy operations in these two divisions — which are part of Teynampet zone — in January 2012.
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On Wednesday, the civic body is likely to take over two more divisions from the conservancy operator in the Kodambakkam zone. Another two divisions, from the Adyar zone are also likely to be taken over by the Corporation next week.
Chennai Corporation sources said the private operator continues to find it difficult to carry out conservancy operations in many of the 47 divisions under its control in the Corporation limits. Ramky is in charge of 88 sq km of the three zones in Teynampet, Kodambakkam and Adyar zones, where over 1,500 tonnes of garbage are generated daily. The special purpose vehicle, Chennai Municipal Solid Waste Pvt. Ltd., set up by Ramky Enviro Engineers, had launched operations across all the three zones in January this year.
No improvement
Even after Chennai Corporation threatened to initiate penal action against the firm last Tuesday, the situation has not improved, according to sources. The civic body had warned that the conservancy contract with Ramky would be terminated if its services remained inadequate.
Another precipitating factor for the sudden decision of the civic body is the inability of the private conservancy operator to step up night conservancy by adding 500 more workers.
The previous DMK-led Corporation Council too had taken a similar step, terminating its contract with conservancy operator, Neel Metal Fanalca (NMF). It too, had recommended a gradual withdrawal of the private operator because of the failure of the company to carry out conservancy operations according to the provisions of the contract.
Between June and August 2010, the previous Corporation Council took over garbage clearance from select wards of old Zone VIII, which was earlier being done by Neel Metal Fanalca. The State government finally permitted Chennai Corporation to terminate the conservancy contract with NMF on December 31 last year.
More action soon
During the next council meeting scheduled for June 19, the issue of conservancy will be taken up once again and further action against Ramky is likely to be announced.