Corporation turns Theagaraya Road into garbage bin-free stretch

According to a Chennai Corporation official, the more than 1.5-kilometre long road had 11 garbage bins and all of them have been removed. “Now, our conservancy workers visit shops functioning on the road to collect garbage. This is to keep the pedestrian plaza clean,” the official added.

The civic body, under the smart city mission, has taken up the pedestrian plaza project in T Nagar at a cost of Rs 33.80 crore and works began in May 2018 and is scheduled to be completed this year.

“We are collecting garbage from the shops twice a day and the shop owners have been asked to segregate their waste into degradable and non-degradable,” the official said.

The Chennai Corporation had already announced Manali as bin-free zone and removed every garbage bin from the streets. As many as 251 bins were removed from the streets to implement zero waste zone initiative. As per the initiative, garbage would be either recycled or composted.

While 790 bins were removed from across the city, the civic body plans to extend the drive beyond Manali zone and Theagaraya Road.

According to data from the Corporation data, the streets of Chennai had 12,301 garbage bins on January 1. Of them, 790 bins have been removed so far while the civic body has identified 259 garbage bins that may soon be removed. As of now, there are 11,511 garbage bins inthe city.