Chennai Corporation lacks freezers for dead

Sources told DC that non-availability of the box has been a permanent fixture in the last 18 months. “Earlier, the freezer boxes and cadaver transport vans were maintained by the mechanical engineering department. For some unstated reasons, Ripon Buildings officials transferred it to the purview of the Health department. Thereafter, maintenance of the equipment never happened,” said an official, requesting anonymity.

The reason behind non-availability was the Corporation's shortsighted move to outsource the supply and maintenance of freezer boxes to a private contractor. “The problem was that the price quoted by Corporation was so low that nearly two years after the idea to outsource the service was arrived at, not one contractor has come forward,” said an official. “The boxes currently with us are in an un-repairable condition,” the official added.

Most senior officials were unaware of this when DC contacted them. One official told DC that an Expression of Interest (EoI) statement was floated last month, but that there were no takers. Private suppliers like Dilip Kumar, proprietor of Andavan Freezer Box Services, are the beneficiaries of the corporation's failed supply chain. Kumar, who supplies boxes in areas like RK Nagar, Tondiarpet, Royapuram and surrounding areas, said he gets an average of 25 customers in a month. “All of them are poor people so I charge only nominal rates like Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,000 a day, depending on the size of the box,” he said. “Then again, no one in these areas depends on the Corporation or government supplied freezer boxes. It is never available when the people need it,” Kumar said.