2 ECR beaches rise from bottom to bag cleanest in city honours

CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) ranked Neelankarai and Akkarai as the cleanest beaches in the city.

According to the data revealed by the civic body, Neelankarai and Akkarai beaches topped the table with 100 points each, followed by Besant Nagar which won the first rank with 98.6 points in January. The beach has 99 points now. It said that all the 30 shops in Neelankarai and 33 shops in Akkarai beach have two bins to segregate biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste. Both beaches were at the bottom of the list in the last two surveys conducted in January.

Following this, the zonal officials of the respective zones were instructed to intensify the beach cleaning work. Based on the instruction, mass cleaning was conducted once a fortnight and the door-to-door waste collection was also intensified near the beach area, corporation sources said. The survey conducted from February 2 to 14 by the civic body analyses the beaches on factors including shop bins, mass cleaning, and toilet cleanliness.

Marina beach ranked third with 98 points, followed by Tiruvottiyur with 96 points. The data noted that there are no shops in Tiruvottiyur with no sand cleaning machines. The ranking for Tiruvottiyur beach has been based on the manpower appointed, cleaning drive, solid waste collection on the doorstep, and public toilets maintenance.

As per the study, Tiruvanmiyur and Palavakkam beaches hold the last rank with 94 points each. The data showed that the public toilets are well maintained in all six beaches, except Akkarai beach which has no toilets because of low footfall.