Bringing an end to tiresome garbage collection through push carts and tricycles, civic workers in village panchayats, including those around the girivalam path in Tiruvannamalai, were given battery-run carts on Wednesday.
In the first phase of the initiative, which was mandated by the Tamil Nadu Housing and Urban Development Department, 60 e-carts were given to sanitary workers at the Block Development Office (BDO) in Tiruvannamalai town. Another 28 e-vehicles will be given to workers in the coming weeks. Collector B. Murugesh launched the initiative.
The initiative is part of an effort to improve the eco-friendliness of the process as well as increase the dignity of the garbage collectors. “As Tiruvannamalai is a dry region, daily garbage collection is challenging for sanitary workers, who are mostly women. Such e-carts will help them do the work easily and more frequently whenever needed,” S. Arunachalam,BDO, told The Hindu.
At present, Tiruvannamalai block has 69 village panchayats with around 350-450 kg of garbage generated from these local bodies everyday. Of these, five village panchayats, namely Vengaikal, Athiyanthal, Adi Annamalai, Nalavanpalayam and Anaipirandan are located around girivalam path. These panchayats were entrusted with garbage collection along the path that generates at least 150-250 kg of garbage.
Each e-vehicle, which costs ₹2.48 lakh, can travel up to 100 km, or six hours continuously on a single charge, and requires periodical charging. It can traverse through narrow lanes and carry a capacity of 40-50 kg of waste per trip. “The new vehicle will reduce our physical strain. More such vehicles should be introduced,” said K. Pachaiammal, a sanitary worker.
BDO officials said that they intended to hire advertising agencies to place advertisements on these e-vehicles, with the proceeds going toward maintenance of these vehicles and making the e-vehicles more colourful. The drive will focus on the girivalam path due to the large flow of visitors..
