Good morning, Chennai!
☀️ Today’s weather: High: 34 ℃ | Low: 24 ℃ | A sunny day ahead.
🧐 Did you know? Pondy Bazaar gets its name from Pondichery Chokkalinga Mudhaliar, who built ten shops and named it Pondy Bazaar to commemorate his native Pondicherry.
📱 Local connectivity
A new app called Kyn aims to increase hyperlocal connectivity among Chennai residents.
What’s it about? A new-gen media service platform called Kynhood Technologies launched Kyn, a new app to help strengthen communities and foster connectivity. It’s a new platform to triangulate television, print, and social media across targeted zones.
- The app offers free access to live content, video on demand, posts, and clips. People can use filters to select a specific zone like Adyar, Anna Nagar, Mylapore, etc. There are 14 zones at launch.
- The app allows users to choose from categories like shopping, tech, entertainment, learning, spirituality, and others. People can communicate via posts, one-minute clips, blogs, etc.
Goals: Kynhood hopes the app will reach one million users in Chennai in the first quarter. They have plans to launch the app in other South Indian states.
📷 Through a student’s lens
A unique photo exhibition showcases people’s unheard stories from different districts.
What’s it about? The two-day exhibition, Unseen Perspectives, features photos by students from classes 9 to 12 at the Lalit Kala Akademi. It was the result of a year-long workshop for schoolchildren curated by photographers M Palani Kumar and Muthamizh Kalai Vizhi.
- The welcoming photos show a stack of betel leaves arranged in rounds to explore the lives of workers in the fields. The photos are a gateway to people’s lives across several districts.
- The photos range from family members, workers, everyday life, and particular places that hold significance to the student photographer.
Representing the future: Director Pa Ranjith congratulated the students for their efforts. He spoke about preconceived notions that people have about students from government schools and how this opportunity will help them going forward.
🏗️ Brigade Group’s Chennai plans
The real estate company is betting big on Chennai with new projects.
What’s it about? The Bengaluru-based company believes Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai will be their focus markets with residential and hospitality projects. The company expects Chennai to be its second biggest market after Bengaluru.
- The company has unveiled plans for a 250-room resort on East Coast Road (ECR). It’ll be the first such project by the company in Chennai, and they’re in discussions with hoteliers to manage operations.
- The company also has plans for a 2.5 million sq ft, high-rise residential project across 16 acres in Perambur through its partnership with PVP Ventures Ltd.
Chennai’s growth: The residential sector has gained momentum in Chennai thanks to the increased presence of IT, automotive, and manufacturing companies.
🚇 Metro’s extension plans
The CMRL has floated a tender to extend the metro rail to the new Parandur airport and Avadi.
What’s the story so far? Last month, the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) submitted a feasibility report for 19 elevated stations from Poonamallee to Parandur covering 43.64 km. Now, they’ve floated tenders for the same, this time till the upcoming airport at Parandur and to Avadi.
- The plan is to have the service take passengers inside the terminals, unlike at the current airport, where people have to walk to the terminal from the station. There could only be a few stations every 5 km from Poonamallee.
- For the extension from Koyambedu to Avadi, the plan is for 15 stations covering 16.07 km. This extension is estimated to cost ₹6,376 crore.
Additional connectivity requests: Passengers have demanded extensions up to Pattabiram near Nemilichery Outer Ring Road. This would allow people to travel from Koyambedu to Poonamallee via Avadi and for workers and residents in industrial areas in Ponneri, Gummidipoondi and IT park employees in Pattabiram.
✨ Things to do…
Here are some fun and interesting things to do in the city over the weekend!
- Understand empathy at the International Kindness Festival this weekend.
- Experience unique musical talents at the Aavaa Dingi to empower differently-abled people this Sunday.
- A musical evening awaits with Sathyaprakash’s Pink Moon Boat Concert this Saturday.
- For the foodies, MGM Beach Resorts presents its Oriental Food Festival this weekend.
- Food, fun and adventure await at the Kyn Karnival this Saturday.
🛋️ Local Lounge
Yesterday’s Poll Results:
- I play games on my phone: 66.7% 🏆
- I don’t play games on my phone: 33.3%
Answers to Yesterday’s Question:
What was your best-performing subject in school?
Suchi: “History”
That’s it for today. Have a great weekend!