Good morning, Chennai!
⛅ Today’s weather: High: 35 ℃ | Low: 27 ℃ | Partly cloudy skies for today.
🧐 Did you know? The Chennai Corporation now maintains over 150 bridges across rivers in the city.
🏛️ The Parsi footprint in Chennai
The Parsi community’s history in the city goes back centuries and culminated in the building of the Anjuman Baug.
What’s their history? Parsi settlers in Chennai came from Coorg to seek refuge during Tipu Sultan’s attempt to annex the region. Around 1795, a group arrived in the city and presented the Governor with a portrait of the Raja of Coorg who supported them. They then bought a piece of land and established the Anjuman Baug (garden).
- The 72,000 square feet garden is lined with mango and peepal trees and stretches from West Mada Street to Arathoon Road. Next to it are small buildings, the red heritage bungalow and the Banglee, where payers for the departed are performed.
- The two-storey red heritage Dharmshala was gifted by the Phiroj Clubwala in 1908. There’s also a newly-renovated pink Dharmshala with air-conditioned rooms.
Declining numbers: The demographic landscape of Parsis in the city has declined over the decades. Most of the Parsi population is above 50, with not many youngsters.
🚨 Safety at resettlement spots
A new report highlights unsafe environments at resettlement sites in the city.
What’s it about? Advocate Commissioner K Elango, appointed by the Madras High Court, submitted his interim report on the city’s resettlement sites. It highlighted women’s and kids’ safety as a concern in places like Perumbakkam. It also stated violence against women had increased in the past seven years.
- Elango filed the first report on resettlement sites in 2018. Following that, a police station was set up. However, the station’s current strength is only 50 against the sanctioned 76.
- In the tenements, drugs are easily available, even to school-going kids. Some parents don’t let their daughters play outside out of fear for their safety.
Another report: A recent report from the Information & Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities highlighted safety and infrastructure concerns in resettlement sites at Kannagi Nagar and Semmenchery. Here, police officials have normalised abuse, several roads don’t have lighting, and girls are afraid to go to school.
🛣️ Auditing city roads
The NGO Arappor Iyakkam has urged the public’s help in identifying faults with the city’s roads.
What’s it about? The anti-corruption NGO is asking the public to audit the city’s roads that violate the Indian Road Congress (IRC) guidelines. The information can be uploaded at https://arappor.org/SpeedBreakerAuditForm.
- The faults the NGO stated were speed breakers taller than 10 cm, roads without signboards or at least 40 metres near a speed breaker, and missing white luminous paint.
- The head of the NGO recently met with residents to inform them of the audit. The NGO will consolidate the information and submit a report to the government.
Necessary exercise: The campaign came in the wake of the death of a daily wage labourer due to a poorly laid speed breaker in February. Several injuries and deaths have been reported over sunken manholes and higher speed breakers.
🚇 New metro parking lots
The Chennai Metro will open two new parking lots near the Airport and Thirumangalam metro stations.
What’s it about? Both lots are expected to accommodate about 1,600 two-wheelers. Metro officials decided to convert their empty plots, including one piece of land bought for phase 2 construction at Thirumangalam. The hope is that these new parking facilities will help increase footfall.
- These two stations were chosen since they attract the highest daily footfalls of nearly 15,000 after the Central Metro. At the Airport metro, the existing capacity is 475 two-wheelers. But regulars face trouble since it becomes full during peak hours.
- The two stations were also chosen since commuters from nearby locations like Mogappair, Pallavaram, Chromepet, and Tambaram use the metro regularly.
The increasing demand: According to the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), the total parking capacity is over 16,000 two-wheelers and nearly 4,000 cars. However, people have been demanding more parking space as ridership grows across the network.
📊 Today’s Poll
(Only subscribers can participate in the polls)
Do you enjoy watching horror movies?
- I enjoy watching horror movies.
- I don’t enjoy watching horror movies.
❓ Today’s Question
(Only subscribers can submit their answers)
What sport(s) did you play as a kid?
Reply to this email with your answers.
🗞️ In other news…
- This Bakrid season, the price of mutton has increased by 10-15%.
- To clear the holiday rush, the Southern Railway announced special trains between Tambaram and Ramanathapuram.
- Residents protested at the foot-over bridge connecting MEPZ to the Sanatorium bus stand over the non-functional escalator.
- Open silt catch pits across several roads in the city pose a threat to pedestrians.
- Three Chennai journalists were conferred with the 2024 Narada Award.
That’s it for today. Have a great day!