There is something undeniably settling about a series of battery-operated vehicles (BOVs) filing out of a yard in clockwork precision, orderly, particularly in striking contrast to the chaos on the highway roads of Manali in north Chennai. What adds to the decided assurance of this scene is the women at the helm of the vehicles, smartly attired in blue uniforms with characteristic orange panels, their confidence. Conceivably, in this scene, are embedded reasons why this one zone in Chennai city has achieved a nondescript milestone, and yet one that must be shouted out from the rooftops and emulated.
If good solid waste management defines an urban local body, then Manali, Zone 2 of the Greater Chennai Corporation, would be a crown jewel, with its consistent over 90% source segregation. On good weeks, it could go up to 96%. “In Manali alone, roughly about 56 tonnes of waste is generated in a day. Over 51 tonnes is segregated, and only 4.5 tonnes reaches the dump yard at Kondungaiyur,” claims Ravi Subramanian, deputy project head, Chennai Enviro, the service unit of Ramky Enviro Engineers, a private solid waste management operator, now rebranded as Re Sustainability. Since February 2021, it has been tasked with conservancy operations for Zones 1, 2 , 3 and part of Zone 7.
