CHENNAI: When a motorist tussles with another to travel as slow as possible, and that too at peak hour, you know something is wrong. If you see such a sight on Chennai’s roads and are wondering what could possibly make people struggle to go slower, take a deep breath and the answer is apparent. Voila, a Corporation garbage truck!These huge vehicles that transport garbage from the transfer stations to the dump yards in Kodungaiyur and Perungudi can create a harrowing time for motorists. The attack on your nose apart, the garbage trucks also often leave some motorists with the necessity to go back home to shower and change their clothes.“The trucks are seldom covered properly. I come across at least two of them on my way to work every day,” says P Sudarshan, who works for an IT firm on Old Mahabalipuram Road. “It is like that fairy tale where two children leave a trail of bread crumbs to mark their path. In this case, it is rotting food and god knows what else,” he says. Sudarshan adds that it is a regular occurrence for a motorcyclist to find himself or herself covered in garbage, or for cars to be zipping around with big splotches on their windscreens.The problem is a little more severe in the northern parts of the city, which already face traffic congestion thanks to narrow roads. With nowhere to go, slowing down to work up some distance between themselves and the garbage trucks is just not an option.“It is a fact of life where I live. Every day, I step out of my house fresh from my bath and prayers. But that lasts all of 10 or 15 minutes. At least in South Chennai, roads are wider and you can take alternative parallel routes. There is no respite in North Chennai,” says R Sivathambi, an auto driver who is a resident of Ayanavaram.Corporation officials on the other hand, say their hands are tied. “The garbage trucks carry segregated waste from yard to yard from 6 am. If we leave it for later, then it is only going to start rotting further and raising an even bigger stench,” says Mayor M Subramanian.He adds that it is mandatory that these trucks are covered with fish nets, and promised to look into it when told of the stinking trail they leave behind. The Mayor also said officials were posed with certain practical problems in the garbage movement patterns.“It is not practical for us to reschedule the movement of these trucks at this juncture, as it is synched with the time people throw out their garbage, which is usually in the mornings. Only if people change this timing can we change ours,” he told City Express.Other Corporation officials also speak of certain practical issues that prevent the movement and dumping of garbage during night. “The dumping yards have poor lighting and it is likely the dumping trucks could fall into a pit. So it is out of the question right now,” says an official who did not wish to be named.The Mayor had an answer for that too. “Work to repair and streamline the garbage dumping yards has already begun. When they have been refurbished, maybe we will look into the option of dumping at night,” he says.But for now, the shower of garbage and its pungent odours promise to continue for road users along the roads leading to the dump yards.
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