Good morning, Chennai!
🌦️ Today’s weather: High: 35 ℃ | Low: 24 ℃ | A little cloudy with chance of some rain.
🧐 Did you know? Robert Kennedy from Chennai holds the Guinness Book of World Records as the man with the largest collection of clocks.
🚁 Drones and agriculture
Chennai-based EJJ Aeros Private Limited has developed drones to spray pesticides and medicines over crops.
What’s it about? The market for agricultural drones is expanding, and EJJ Aeros is looking to capitalise. The drone’s unique feature is that it’s made up of metals rather than fibres. Despite being at a relatively affordable price, it doesn’t compromise on performance.
- EJJ Aeros is the fourth company from Chennai to get approval from the Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGCA) to make agricultural drones and the first in India to make them using steel.
- Composite materials are bad for the environment. The company is aiming toward drones. Founder and CEO Lal Mohammed Khan wanted to break the notion that drones are expensive.
How will they be used? These drones can cover 25-30 km and carry up to 5 kg. Apart from agriculture, they can also be used to carry medicines to remote areas and villages.
🥭 Mango festival
The mango festival will feature farm activities and mango delicacies.
What’s it about? Mango season has arrived just in time for The Great Mango Festival organised by Hanu Reddy Mango Tourism. The festival will feature activities and food revolving around the beloved fruit.
- This year’s festival will take place at the Hanu Raddy Raghava Farms on June 2, 9, 16, and 23. It’s a 60-year-old mango orchard in Othivakkam.
- The activities include themed entertainment, traditional Indian games, paddy planting, obstacle courses, and mango eating and picking contests.
What’s to eat? There’ll also be several mango-based dishes to savour, including a mango-infused breakfast served on the iconic 156-foot table at the farm.
✈️ Flying to Port Blair becomes expensive
Flight tickets from Chennai to Port Blair have soared due to increased demand.
What’s it about? Following Spice Jet’s suspension of flights on this route, a one-way ticket to Port Blair has increased to over ₹14,000. Combined with high demand, leisure travel has been affected by fewer seats.
- There are 3-4 flights per day. On weekdays, a one-way ticket costs between ₹10,000-25,000. On the weekends, it’s ₹19,000-22,000. The fares on this route are usually between ₹5,000-7,000.
- While airfares to Port Blair are usually high throughout the year, they increase during the peak holiday season. The withdrawal of flights has forced people to cancel and book on other airlines.
Impact on residents: The situation has affected many Port Blair residents who come to Chennai for medical treatment. Many took to social media to express their frustration and worry they’ll be unable to travel to Chennai if the frequency doesn’t increase.
⚡ Chennai blackout
The power outage in several parts of Chennai was reportedly due to pollution and insulator tracking.
What happened? On Friday morning, several parts of the city faced power outages. A report from the Southern Regional Load Despatch Centre (SRLDC) said it was due to severe pollution and insulator tracking that tripped transmission lines.
- Insulator tracking is when current flows over the surface of the insulation, which then generates heat and damages it. On May 16, the 230 kv transmission lines in North Chennai were overloaded.
- On the pollution front, an official stated that fly ash deposits on insulators, gas emissions from industries in Manali, and the moisture from sea breeze damaged insulators.
Recovery: The duration of the outage was a little over 2 hours. The substations at Manali, Tondiarpet, Basin Bridge, CMRL Central, and others were tripped. They were revived through back-feeding substations at Taramani, Alamaty, and Sunguvarchatram.
📊 Today’s Poll
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Does your locality face frequent power cuts?
- My locality faces frequent power cuts.
- My locality doesn’t face frequent power cuts.
❓ Today’s Question
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What’s the earliest movie you remember watching?
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🗞️ In other news…
- The Tambaram Corporation has hired three companies to collect segregated waste.
- The stray dog census conducted by the Chennai Corporation will resume in June.
- Despite removing encroachments in Mylapore and T Nagar, hawkers return within a day.
- Victoria Public Hall’s renovation work under Singara 2.0 will be ready next April.
- Light to moderate rain has been forecast by the IMD for the next two days.
That’s it for today. Have a great day!