Chennai gets first online portal to exchange reusable products
Chennai became the first city in the country to have waste trading online, with the city corporation launching a website where Chennaites can buy and sell reusable and recycled products. A first-of-its-kind website in India, www.madraswasteexchange.com has a variety of products made from dry and wet waste such as school bags, slippers, vermicompost, manure, coconut powder, lemon dishwash among other products.
Residents can collect the products from the 210 Resource Recovery Points (RRPs) across the city. The website is part of the Smart City Mission and currently, the civic body only sells dry and wet waste.
Source: The New Indian Express
Chennai Corporation to form committees to monitor restored water bodies
The Greater Chennai Corporation will form committees at the zonal level to monitor over 130 restored water bodies to prevent encroachments and inflow of sewage. These committees are also set to inspect illegal sewage
connections with Storm Water Drains (SWDs) and block them.
The committee will comprise assistant engineers and sanitary inspectors and will be chaired by the zonal officers. The civic body is also looking to get representatives of Residents Welfare Associations (RWAs) to be part of these committees.
Of the 210 water bodies that are under the purview of the Corporation, desilting work has been done in over 130 and work is expected to begin by the end of January for the rest.
Source: The New Indian Express
Foot overbridge near Alandur Metro to open by month-end
The long-pending and much-needed foot overbridge near Alandur Metro station will be open for the public by the end of December. The foot overbridge, built at a cost of ₹6 crores, will have escalators and staircases on either side of the road.
Alandur Metro which handles thousands of passengers every day has only one entry/exit on one side of the road, unlike other stations. Tenders had been called for constructing this bridge twice and finally, it was awarded and the construction began in early 2018.
Meanwhile, eco-friendly scooters have been introduced at Alandur Metro for ₹1 per minute. These bikes will be available from 7 am till 9 pm. Currently, six scooters are available and depending on the demand, CMRL plans to increase the number of scooters.
Source: The Hindu
Proceeds from sale of abandoned vehicles for city’s surveillance system
Chennai Corporation has given 75% of the proceeds of the sale of junk vehicles to the city police for buying surveillance cameras. The civic body had recently disposed of 3,059 of the 10,954 vehicles including two-wheelers, three-wheelers and four-wheelers that were abandoned on the footpath encroaching the public places. Out of ₹91.1 lakh that was earned through the auction of these vehicles, ₹68.33 lakh was handed over to the city police for the purchase of cameras to strengthen the security system.
Source: The Times of India
MTC replaces 800 old buses in less than a year
Metropolitan Transport Corporation has added 15 new red buses to its fleet. With this the corporation has replaced 800 old buses in less than a year. The new buses have been fitted with LED strips on the footboards and the height between steps have also been reduced.
Source: The Times of India
[Compiled by Sandhya Raju]
