Chennai Corporation to step up efforts to make beaches plastic free

The Corporation officials will conduct random checks twice a day on shops on the three beaches at Marina, Besant Nagar and Thiruvanmiyur to prevent circulation of single-use plastics

The Greater Chennai Corporation has decided to make a determined effort to rid the beaches in Chennai of single-use plastics. | Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO

The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has decided to intensify its measures to enforce the ban on single-use plastics with particular focus on Marina, Besant Nagar, and Tiruvanmiyur beaches to keep them of plastics.

Officials will be deployed to monitor all the shops in and around these three beaches on a daily basis to ensure that they did not use the banned plastic items. According to a press release, the shops would be checked twice day.

In the first such inspection on the Marina beach on Friday, 18 shops were found to be using banned single-use plastics. They were fined ₹1,800.

The Corporation has intensified routine inspection in shops across the city. Around 40% of the 6,478 commercial establishments raided across the city between July 27 and August 2 were found to be violating the ban. The officials seized 1,861 kg of banned plastic items from these shops. A total fine of ₹9.17 lakh was collected from these shops.

Now, there will be special focus on the three beaches, the civic body said. Officials said the public visiting the beaches should avoid bringing or using single-use plastics. Anyone found to be violating the ban will be fined.

While the State government’s ban on 14 types of single-use plastics was already in force since 2019, the Union government recently banned the use of 14 more types of single-use plastics.