Good morning, Chennai!
🌧️ Today’s weather: Cloudy skies and rain.
🧐 Did you know? The iconic Savera Hotel was the city’s first four-star hotel. It originally started as a three-star hotel with 30 rooms and an adjacent restaurant block.
📚 Beachside reading
Bessy Reads is a safe space for avid and new readers.
What’s it about? As the city wakes up, book lovers gather near the Karl Schmidt Memorial at Besant Nagar Beach as part of ‘Bessy Reads’. It’s a community for readers to be a part of and encourage new readers.
- The initiative was started in the city by avid readers Sanjana Patnaik and Kruthika Kumar. They were inspired by Bengaluru’s Cubbon Reads.
- Besant Nagar is an ideal location since it’s a residential area and is accessible by public transport. The meetings happen on Sundays from 6 am to 9 am.
🏗️ FSI lure for green buildings
Officials plan to promote more green buildings by providing them with additional FSI.
What’s it about? One of the components of the recently-released Chennai Climate Action Plan (CAP) is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 70% of emissions in the city are from buildings. The CAP includes a proposal to compensate green buildings with additional Floor Space Index (FSI) to encourage builders to invest in green building norms.
- The immediate costs of green building norms are relatively high. Apart from the additional FSI, there’s also a proposal to modify the general building regulations to add deductions in FSI calculations. There’s also a suggestion for a pilot to assess Energy Conservation Building Codes.
- Builders are optimistic. If the government can provide premium FSI for free for green buildings, they won’t have to incur additional costs. A recent government order directed the State Housing Board and Habitat and Development Board to use sustainable designs.
Necessity: Some estimates show Chennai has the second-highest per capita carbon emissions among metros. In 2018-19, every person emitted 1.9 tonnes of carbon-di-oxide. Overall, it was 14.38 tonnes during the same period. Residential buildings accounted for 44.4%. Commercial and institutional buildings were at 37.5%.
🚉 Restaurant on wheels
A coach of an EMU train will be transformed into a restaurant on wheels.
What’s it about? An Electric Multiple Units (EMU) train arrived at the central station’s premium parking area after an overnight journey. The second-class coach of the train will become a restaurant on wheels by October.
- The coach will undergo a complete renovation with a new paint job and become an air-conditioned restaurant. Passengers can enjoy a meal before boarding their trains.
- The coach will be able to seat 40 customers. It’ll feature a railway-themed interior with an in-house kitchen. Railway officials are looking at experienced restaurants through an e-auction process.
Necessity: The Central station gets anywhere between 3-4 lakh passengers daily. However, there are limited dining options for people. This prompted officials to provide a unique dining experience.
😋 Food discourse platform
Foodwall is a new social networking platform to discuss all things food.
What’s it about? Saravan Krishna M wanted to develop a platform for people to get the latest about the food scene in the city. He developed Foodwall, a platform for people to discuss the latest in food. He terms it Quora for food and LinkedIn for foodies.
- Foodwall launched on June 12 and has since garnered 500 users. Currently available only to Chennaites, Sarvanan says the app and the platform are user-friendly. It’s a user-driven platform for people to give recommendations and reviews.
- The current marketing strategy is word of mouth. With Saravanan’s friend Amogh Arun Kumar as co-founder and chief customer officer (CCO), the school friends have big plans for the company.
What does the future hold? The company is targeting 10,000 users in a couple of weeks. Then comes expanding to other metros, and after that, it’s going global.
📊 Today’s Poll
(Only subscribers can participate in the polls)
How would you rate the quality of schools in the city?
- The quality of schools in the city is generally good.
- The quality of schools in the city is below average/bad.
❓ Today’s Question
(Only subscribers can submit their answers)
What would be your first expenditure if you won the lottery?
Reply to this email with your answers.
🗞️ In other news…
- Alumni, industry, and donors helped IIT Madras raise a historic ₹231 crore in the 2022-23 financial year.
- City mosques bring together people from different faiths in open-house meetings.
- Chennai is among the chosen cities to have a bullet-train corridor.
- The fishing sector is suffering from poor catch due to fishing bans and extinct varieties.
- Several localities across the city experienced power cuts due to the heavy rains.
🛋️ Local Lounge
Yesterday’s Poll:
- The fares for the metro should be decreased: 66.7% 🏆
- The fares for the metro need not be decreased: 33.3%
That’s it for today. Have a great day!