Good morning, Chennai!
🌤️ Today’s weather: High: 35 ℃ | Low: 25 ℃ | A little cloudy for the day.
🧐 Did you know? Chennai has the biggest artificial seaport in India and the biggest port in the Bay of Bengal region.
🍲 Rayar’s Mess’ legacy
One of the oldest messes in the city continues to be a favourite among locals.
What’s it about? There’s a common sight of locals gathered in the narrow lane of Arundale Street in Mylapore with the signature blue colour name board that reads Rayar’s Mess in Tamil and English. It has stood the test of time since it opened its doors in the early 1930s.
- Spread across 500 sq ft, it’s the second location of the mess. Until 1992, it was on Kutchery Road, but then shifted to its current location.
- The working hours are from 7 am to 10 am, with breakfast staples like idli, vada, coffee, and Pongal. Then from 3 pm to 8 pm in the evenings. The highest price, ₹65, is for their ghee dosai.
Legacy: While times have changed, Rayar’s Mess continues to serve quality food at reasonable prices. They’ve also evolved. During the pandemic, the mess registered with food delivery apps. They have plans to expand to a larger space and eventually to franchises.
🏞️ New sponge parks
The Chennai Corporation will form sponge parks in 11 zones.
What’s it about? The Corporation’s Parks Department will set up sponge parks across 11 zones to help mitigate flooding and recharge groundwater in the surrounding areas. The project will cost ₹7.90 lakh and be done in five phases.
- In Manali, Tondiarpet, and Royapuram, at least 8 wards will have sponge parks as part of the first phase. Under phase two, there are four zones – Thiru Vi Ka Nagar, Anna Nagar, Teynampet, and Kodambakkam.
- Phase 3 will include the Valasaravakkam and Alandur zones. Phases 4 and 5 will include Sholinganallur and Ranga Avenue in Madhavaram, respectively.
Why sponge parks? They’re beneficial in low-lying areas since they can collect and store water during heavy rainfall. It helps these areas from being inundated and makes urban spaces more absorbent.
🧱 New wall design
The Chennai Corporation finalised a new design for public walls.
What’s it about? Public walls in the city will soon have a brick design, and the Chennai Corporation logo as the civic body finalised the new look. The plan is to aesthetically improve public walls.
- The walls will be 2,400 mm long from column to column, with a black grill. The height will be 900 mm, and its width 230mm. The grill will have the letters, ‘GC’ in the first line and ‘C’ below it.
- The cost is estimated to be ₹20 lakh to fence a compound of 100 metres.
Riverbank fencing: The Chennai Corporation also plans to fence riverbanks. The water resource department and the revenue department have only demarcated 31.04 km of the 59 km of the Cooum stretch.
🚇 Metro extension request
There’s increasing demand among residents for the metro to extend to Tiruninravur.
What’s it about? The Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) recently signed a contract to prepare a detailed project report on extending the metro line from Koyambedu to Avadi. Now, there’s demand from residents for it to extend to Tiruninravur.
- The proposed corridor via Padi Pudhu Nagar, Ambattur, and Thirumullaivoyal is 16 km long with 15 elevated stations. The impetus was the development of industries and IT parks.
- Tiruninravur residents, located 10 km from Avadi, want the state government to extend the line.
Benefit: An extension could benefit thousands of people who otherwise depend on government buses and share autos. If the line is extended till Tiruninravur with a stop at Pattabiram, it will help office-goers and college students.
📊 Today’s Poll
(Only subscribers can participate in the polls)
Do you expect the city to handle the monsoon better this year?
- I expect the city to handle the monsoon better this year.
- I don’t expect the city to handle the monsoon better this year.
❓ Today’s Question
(Only subscribers can submit their answers)
Which brand of snacks/biscuits do you eat the most?
Reply to this email with your answers.
🗞️ In other news…
- The Chennai Traffic Police have asked the public to observe August 26 as Zero Accident Day.
- Kovai Medical Centre will enter Chennai’s healthcare market after acquiring property on OMR.
- Sanitary workers across the city now have vacuum suction vehicles at their disposal.
- Nine buildings were razed by the Chennai Corporation on land that was part of the Manapakkam-Gerugambakkam pond.
- IIT Madras has expressed disappointment with the latest QS World University Rankings.
🛋️ Local Lounge
Yesterday’s Poll:
- I prefer driving a two-wheeler: 60.0% 🏆
- I prefer driving a four-wheeler: 40.0%
Answers to Yesterday’s Question:
What’s your favourite summer activity?
Suchi: “To go to a hill station!”
That’s it for today. Have a great day!