Good morning, Chennai!
🌤️ Today’s weather: High: 30 ℃ | Low: 22 ℃ | Mostly sunny for the day.
🧐 Did you know? The iconic Fruit Shop was started by Harris Abdulla and his business partner Mohammad Salim. Their first location was a 250-square-foot space at Greams Road that opened in 1995.
🏞️ Making parks gender-inclusive
With safety and inclusiveness in mind, Chennai’s parks can become open spaces and cater to everyone’s needs.
What’s it about? Per the Chennai Corporation, the city has over 800 parks with kids and families visiting every day. However, many of these parks aren’t the most inclusive spaces, particularly for women and girls.
- Many parks don’t have clean public toilets or proper lighting and often have secluded walkways. These, plus the likelihood of harassment, serve as deterrents for women.
- To make them inclusive and safe, there should be a holistic approach to their design. For example, more open and visible spaces, gender-neutral game fields, regular patrolling, and well-maintained public facilities.
How can this be done? Without the involvement of the community, i.e., meaningful participation of residents, particularly women, for things like safety audits, public parks won’t become inclusive. This can be done through regular community events to encourage a shared sense of ownership among residents.
🚇 OMR Metro changes
Entry and exit points for elevated stations have been shifted to avoid the shrinking of the roads.
What’s it about? Previous plans for the entry and exit points for stations to be between the main road and service lanes have been scrapped. Instead, the metro has acquired land along the metro line to build them on the side of the road.
- Each station will have two entry and exit points. Officials didn’t want to reduce the total right of way in the future on this route. Hence, the points will be on the roadside.
- At the main junctions on the Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) stretch, there’s a lot of traffic during peak hours. It takes about 20-30 minutes to cross the junction.
About this stretch: 20 elevated stations from Taramani to Siruseri SIPCOT will cover 20 km. This line is part of the 54.5 km corridor 3 from Madhavaram Milk Colony to Siruseri SIPCOT. Barricades will be removed this year as most of the construction finishes.
🏢 CapitaLand’s Chennai investments
The Singapore-based CapitaLand Investment signed an MoU to invest in multiple projects in Chennai.
What’s it about? As the Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet secured record investments for the state, CapitaLand Investment joined the party. It plans to invest about ₹4,500 crore in the city for the next five years, covering multiple infrastructure projects.
- The MoU covers two new buildings at its new International Tech Park in Radial Road, a data centre project in Ambattur, and the next phase of the Ascendas Firstpace Industrial Park in Oragadam.
- The company had already invested about ₹5,000 crore in Chennai when it first entered the city with the International Tech Park in Taramani. It has 13 assets in Chennai and launched Bridge+ Chennai, a coworking space.
Other plans: The company also has plans for Hosur and Coimbatore for industrial park projects. For the company, the state and Chennai have a good mix of IT and industrial infrastructure and talent.
👩🎨 A unique art show
An art exhibition at the Adyar Library and Research Centre showcases contemporary sculptures and paintings.
What’s it about? The 20-day exhibition organised by The Theosophical Society showcases 55 works of sculptures, paintings, and metal reliefs. The themes in these range from tribal livelihoods to mythological characters.
- Sculptor and painter Hemalatha Senathipathi’s works are on display with medium and miniature formats of metal reliefs, sculptures, and canvas paintings.
- The works include portraits of ‘Krishna Under Trees’, made of paper brass enamel and group figurative compositions called ‘Ancient Duo’.
History: Hemalatha spent her childhood at The Cholamandal Artists’ Village in Injambakkam. She’s also the daughter of acclaimed artist M Senathipathi. She was awarded the Tamil Nadu State Award of Lalit Kala Akademi in 1991.
Details: The exhibition runs till 26 January at the Adyar Library and Research Centre.
📊 Today’s Poll
(Only subscribers can participate in the polls)
Have you worked in a co-working space?
- I have worked in a co-working space.
- I haven’t worked in a co-working space.
❓ Today’s Question
(Only subscribers can submit their answers)
If you could draw or paint something in your house, what would it be?
Reply to this email with your answers.
🗞️ In other news…
- A new study of the city’s school students from Apollo Children’s Hospital showed 40% of them are obese.
- The Chennai Metro will procure 30 train cars for the Koyambedu-Sipcot line thanks to a ₹450 crore loan from SBI.
- A Bharatnatyam and Balinese dance production will combine to depict rice cultivation.
- Sarah Kirlew, Australian Consul-General Chennai ends her tenure and looks back at her time in Chennai.
- Greenbase will invest around ₹1,000 crore in the city to build industrial parks.
🛋️ Local Lounge
Yesterday’s Poll:
- I do like going on long drives: 57.1% 🏆
- I don’t like going on long drives: 42.9%
Answers to Yesterday’s Question:
If you were on a cruise, where would you want to travel to?
Suchi: “Alaska”
That’s it for today. Have a great day!