Good morning, Chennai!
🌤️ Today’s weather: High: 36 ℃ | Low: 26 ℃ | A little cloudy for the day.
🧐 Did you know? The Madras regiment began with the siege of 1758 when the French attacked Fort St George but lost to the British who had begun hiring mercenaries.
❔ Encouraging curiosity
The city’s quizzing culture returns to the fore with the Zifo Open Quiz.
What’s it about? In a city known to blend the traditional and modern, Chennai has a storied quizzing culture, mainly thanks to the Landmark Quiz, which took place every August 15 from 1994 to 2020. It was a meeting ground for people of all ages to test their intellectual acumen. Following a hiatus, we have the Zifo Open Quiz.
- Dr Navin Jayakumar, who has been with the quiz since the beginning, is back. Crafting the questions begins by shortlisting 8-9 topics. He aims to make the quiz informative and entertaining.
- Technological evolution has changed how people search for information and learn with the internet and Google. Despite this, the human element is what keeps the quiz alive.
Unique to Chennai: The revival of the quiz is to bring back the spark of curiosity and learning. It’s perfect for a city with a strong quizzing tradition and high participation.
✈️ Tender for new airport
The State government will float a tender early next year to identify the next airport’s developer.
What’s it about? The state government is expected to float the tender for the Parandur airport’s developer. This will be done once the Centre gives its in-principle approval for the project.
- The concessionaire must develop the airport on a revenue-sharing basis as the government decides on the bidding parameters.
- Last month, the Civil Aviation Minister told the Rajya Sabha that the steering committee on greenfield airports recommended a grant of site clearance. The state has submitted the techno-economic report containing the master plan, layouts, and traffic projections.
Progress: According to officials, land acquisition is already underway. The airport will cover 2,171 hectares across 13 villages. This includes over 1,300 hectares of agricultural land, 577 hectares of waterbodies, and 173 hectares of government land.
🚇 Switching trains easily
The CMRL has designed some stations on the IT corridor to enable seamless switching of trains.
What’s it about? Phase 2 construction of the Chennai Metro is in full swing. Part of it is the 45-km long corridor 3 from Madhavaram to Siruseri SIPCOT. For Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) residents, the metro will help ease traffic woes and their daily commutes.
- At the interchange station between corridors 3 and 5 at Sholinganallur, corridor 3 will be the lower level, and corridor 5 will be on top. Passengers will be able to switch between corridors easily.
- The Sholinganallur and Thoraipakkam stations will have plazas for public gatherings and recreational activities. This design allows the Chennai Metro to generate non-ticketing revenue.
Residents request: For many people who live and work on this stretch at the IT companies, the metro will come as a boon. However, given the long distance and multiple transfers, experts say the transition to other trains should be smooth, with easy access to stations and last-mile connectivity options ready to go.
🏍️ Zero road deaths
A week into the Police’s road safety campaign, the city recorded no road accident deaths.
What’s it about? The Greater Chennai Traffic Police launched a 20-day awareness campaign for road safety to record no road accident deaths. After a week, there were no road accident deaths reported on Sunday.
- The additional commissioner for traffic, R Sudhakar, took to social media to congratulate the city and encourage people to continue being responsible drivers and commuters.
- The initiative will feature events like “No Tolerance” junctions, flashmobs, helmet compliance day and no-cell phone driving day.
Statistics: Chennai records about 40-50 fatal accidents every month and about 4-5 non-fatal accidents every day. The Chennai Police wants to bring those numbers down to zero by August 26, the culminating day of the Zero Accident Day (ZAD) campaign.
📊 Today’s Poll
(Only subscribers can participate in the polls)
Have you participated in a quiz competition?
- I have participated in a quiz competition.
- I haven’t participated in a quiz competition.
❓ Today’s Question
(Only subscribers can submit their answers)
Which subject do you wish you were better at in school?
Reply to this email with your answers.
🗞️ In other news…
- Fishermen are unhappy with the rent implemented by the Chennai Corporation for the new Marina Loop Road fish market.
- Axis Commercial Real Estate Fund has invested ₹75 crore in a 1.5-acre plot in Fintech City.
- Despite Corporation efforts, encroachments have returned to T Nagar’s roads.
- No objection certificate delays have hampered coastal highway projects.
- Remote-controlled aerial vehicles have been banned within the city police limits till August 23.
🛋️ Local Lounge
Yesterday’s Poll:
- I have been to a literature festival: 28.6%
- I haven’t been to a literature festival: 71.4% 🏆
Answers to Yesterday’s Question:
What’s an underrated aspect of Chennai?
Suchi: “Hospitality”
Shiva: “People (the police are not biased for the benefit of locals, the business owners are not only hiring locals, the people are forgiving in general – just apologies in most cases will make people back off)”
That’s it for today. Have a great day!