Koyambedu: Garbage in, but not out

Contractors In Charge of Hygiene Have Abandoned Work, Leading To Waste Strewn All Over
The fact that Koyambedu wholesale market is one of the biggest in Asia should be a matter of pride for the city, right? Wrong. Chennaiites who visit the market looking for a fresh basket of vegetables are sure to return with tons of bad memories.


Rotten fruits, vegetables and flowers litter lanes of the market, along with the overpowering stench of urine.The culprits are the shop-owners, one lakh-odd workers, CMDA and the two firms contracted to handle solid waste generated on the 72-acre campus.
Koyambedu has 3,995 shops which handle 6,000 tonnes of fresh produce daily. In the process it generates 200 tonnes of waste (300 tonnes during festivals). Vendors discard rotten produce along lanes and in corners, where it accumulates for days before being cleared. A visit by TOI showed heaps of waste — papayas, oranges, pineapples, tomatoes — piled up in multiple corners and walkways. Shoppers navigate these filthy paths even as they dodge cows that feast on the decaying veggies and fruits, attracting flies and posing a health hazard.
“The market reeks. Vendors and load-men urinate over the waste, exacerbating the stench. We come to Koyambedu expecting fresh produce, but such poor hygiene puts us off,” said S Sunitha, a frequent visitor.
Compounding the issue, the market’s 30-tonne capacity bio CNG plant is defunct due to disputes with the contractor, forcing all waste to be dumped at the Kodungaiyur dump yard.
Despite 200 workers employed by two contractors, the lack of a bin system, poor behavioural awareness and bad enforcement by CMDA are primary reasons for waste accumu lation. The contractors too are ill-equipped with machinery to collect the waste quickly and fail to transport them to local bins.
Additionally, vendors reported that fruits transported from Maharashtra and Karnataka in trucks cushioned with dry grass often arrive damaged, turning to waste upon unloading. This dry grass, about 250kg per truck, is also dumped in market lanes.
Excessive procurement from commission agents leads to further waste. Fruit vendors said the cold storage maintains a common temperature of 5°C 9°C, unsuitable for all fruits.
GCC plans to collaborate with the market on waste management, aiming to have two 100-tonne bio-CNG plants operational by year’s end. “We will tie up with the market for waste processing,” said J Radhakrishnan, GCC commissioner.
Geo Damin, a member of the state’s solid waste management committee, said the returns from processing biowaste do not justify the investment, leading contractors to abandon these plants.
As toilets stay dirty, vendors urinate in open
The Koyambedu market is drowned in the stench of urine as none of the vendors uses the 82 toilets in the market complex.
Reason : The pay-and-use facility costs a bomb.
“Contractors charge upto Rs 30 for every use. Vendors cannot pay Rs 150 to Rs 200 a day to use the restrooms, said K Kannan, Koyambedu Vegetable Vendors Association. “These restrooms are not clean and hygien ic. CMDA must relook its policy,” he said. Only about 50 people use the toilets day in the whole market, said vendors.
Much of the 82 available toilets remain defunct due to lack of wate r supply. Vendors just urinate and bathe in the open.
TOI visited some of the toilets which looked like they had not been cleaned for ages.
A survey by IIT-M recently said there were separate toilets for women but even those were used by men as 94% of the workforce were men. “The toilets are not accessible and unsafe for women,” said a woman billing staff. CMDA offi cials said they are pulling up the contractor for maintenance and upkeep.