Mounds of garbage fast piling up at the transit station of the Pallavaram Municipality is turning it into a dump yard.

Since the closure of the Vengadamangalam dump yard, the local bodies of Pallavaram, Tambaram and Sembakkam, have been facing difficulties in removing waste from their transit stations.

The Pallavaram Municipality has a transit station in Ganapathy Nagar on the Pallavaram Thoraipakkam Radial Road. Since the Venkadamangalam dump yard was closed, garbage, particularly plastic waste, has been stacking up in the transit station at Ganapathy Nagar for more than a year, a senior official of Pallavaram Municipalitysaid.

The Pallavaram locality with more than 3 lakh residential accommodations, located in 43 wards has been facing hardships to remove the collected waste, he said. The Municipality, which generates more than 100 metric tonnes of dry and wet waste, has been facing difficultyies in fully removing more than 50 tonnes of the collected garbage from the transit station.

The Chennai Corporation has permitted the three municipalities, which were using the Vengadamangalam dump yard, to use the Perungudi dump yard on a “temporary basis” with restrictions in quantity, officials said.

Garbage has started stagnating in the transit stations of both Pallavaram and Tambaram. Tambaram Municipality’s transit station is located at Kannadapalayam, officials admitted.

The officials are now concerned that if the Vengadamangalam dump yard is not re-opened, the collected waste would soon become a headache for the local administration and also lead to serious health issues for the residents.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had directed the Vengadamangalam dump yard to be shut down because of the non-functioning of the garbage segregation machine and piling up of garbage.

“The waste segregation machine has been repaired at a cost of ₹25 lakh recently and has started functioning. The stagnated garbage at the dump yard are being converted into manure and plastic fuel using this machine,” an official said.