Madurai corpn plans to announce 10 stretches as binless corridors

Madurai: As part of making Madurai a bin-less city, the city corporation plans to announce 10 important stretches as binless corridors thereby helping to ease traffic congestion besides making the corridors pleasing to commuters.As a first step, the civic body will announce the approach road from the city to Madurai international airport on Aruppukottai main Road as a bin-less corridor. Mayor Indrani Ponvasanth told TOI that many important stretches in the city are narrow and reeling under traffic congestion. “Since we can’t widen all the roads, we have planned to remove the bins kept on the main road and place them on feeder roads. All bins on the 4.5-kilometre stretch on Arupukottai main Road between Therkuvasal and ring road passing through Villupuram and Avaniyapuram, which is an approach road to airport, will be taken off,” said the mayor. She said the stretch was chosen as many commuters to the airport have complained to the corporation about bins being emptied in the morning when many flights depart.A senior corporation official said that about eight tonnes of waste is generated daily on the approach road from the city to the airport and around 25 bins are placed on the stretch. The bins being removed will be placed on the feeder roads as of now and will be gradually removed if there is no complaint about door-to-door collection in the adjacent areas. “As of now, Periyar to Simmakkal, Periyar to Therkuvasal and Melur Main Road near Mattuthavani bus stand have been identified. Officials will study the garbage collection efficiency and identify seven more stretches,” said the official. He said bins will be removed from areas where excess bins have been placed. Civic activists say the main challenges towards moving to a binless city are improving door-to-door collection, sensitising citizens and preventing littering near water bodies. “Door-to-door collection has not improved to implement binless city idea. Overflowing dumper bins in many areas expose the state of garbage collection in the city,” said V P Manikandan, a civic activist from TVS Nagar. Abu Backer, founder of Neer Nilaigal Pathukappu Iyakkam, said many tanks and channels in the city are used as dumping site by residents who blame it on fewer dumper bins. “If the corporation wants to make certain stretches binless, it should take into account the cleanliness of adjacent channels and tanks,” said Abu Backer. T Nageshwaran, a traffic activist from Sellur, while welcoming the plan to go binless, advised the corporation to ensure that this doesn’t affect traffic on narrow feeder roads.
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