Tambaram apartment dwellers to get vegetables at doorstep

TNN | Mar 29, 2020, 01.46 PM IST

CHENNAI: The Tambaram municipality on Saturday began delivering bags of vegetables to apartment dwellers.

Employees of the civic body chose an apartment complex at Aarthi Nagar, Selaiyur, where more than 200 families live and set up a collection point within the compound. "Each kit contains about 11 vegetables and weighs about 3kg. A household of four can manage for three days with a kit. We tried it as a pilot measure today. We managed to sell 100 kits. In coming days, more apartment complexes will be covered," said municipality commissioner (in-charge) M Karuppiah Raja.

According to the commissioner, civic body staff ensured that the apartment dwellers exercised social distancing while collecting the kits. The idea was primarily to cater to senior citizens. Each kit was priced at 100.

"On day one , the staff carried out the distribution. We will authorize vendors from Monday and issue them ID cards so that they can distribute such kits," Karuppiah Raja said, adding that the municipality had also distributed pamphlets and stuck posters highlighting the names of 15 grocery stores within the municipality limits, from where residents can avail home delivery. The stores are allowed to function from 9am to 4pm and residents can place their order over phone, which will be delivered the next day, according to officials.

Municipality officials believe these measures can help them enforce the lockdown better and people will not venture out to buy groceries and rations. The municipality has already shut down the main vegetable market in Tambaram and shifted it to playgrounds of a private school and a government school.

Around 250 shops function at the Tambaram marketwhich records the largest business after Koyambedu and a few areas in Chennai city as it caters to several residential neighbourhoods in the southern suburbs, Karuppiah Raja said