Good morning, Chennai!
🌥️ Today’s weather: High: 33 ℃ | Low: 25 ℃ | A little cloudy for the day.
🧐 Did you know? George Town, known for its markets and historic buildings, is named after King George III.
🏑 Senior men’s hockey tournament
The 14th edition of the tournament kicks off at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium in Chennai.
What’s it about? The Senior Men Hockey National Championship begins with 31 teams competing for the top prize. The tournament is in its 14th edition and runs till November 16.
- The teams are divided into eight pools. In the league stage, each team will play against others in the pool. The top teams from each pool will advance to the quarterfinals, followed by the Semifinals and the final.
- Among the teams competing are Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Chhattisgarh Hockey, Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu, Hockey Madhya Pradesh, Hockey Andhra Pradesh, and Tripura Hockey.
Event’s significance: The tournament will showcase the best talent from across India and help develop the next generation of hockey stars.
🚍 BS4 buses
The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) will operate the newer BS4 Red buses to replace older ones.
What’s it about? The MTC has instructed its branch manager to operate the BS4 Red buses to facilitate the scrapping of older buses from the fleet. The new BS4 buses were procured in 2019.
- The average age of the MTC buses is 9.34. It has added 269 low-floor and 110 new high-floor buses and has begun removing damaged and overaged buses from its fleet.
- The new low-floor buses will be operated on the deluxe bus routes, and the surplus BS4 buses will be operated as ordinary fare buses (pink buses) to allow women to travel for free under the Vidiyal Payanam scheme.
MTC fleet and passenger info: The MTC has a fleet of over 3,300 buses and operates 3,233 scheduled services, transporting over 32 lakh passengers daily.
🌊 Restoring Buckingham Canal
Experts say restoring the Buckingham Canal is necessary for flood mitigation.
What’s it about? Most of South Chennai and its suburbs rely on the Buckingham Canal to drain water through the Pallikaranai marshland and into the sea at Muttukadu. Since the canal in the South is wider and less polluted, the priority should be to first restore 13.3 km of the canal from Okkiyum Maduvu to Muttukadu.
- Udhaya Rajan, an architect from the Uvakai Research Foundation, said when Briths built the canal, they didn’t anticipate it being used to drain floodwater. Boats navigated the canal until it became polluted in the 1990s.
- There’s no proper gradient in the canal. It drops in both directions in North Chennai. Some water goes toward Ennore Creek and some travel south to Cooum.
Danger to South Chennai: Around 110 lakes drain into the Pallikaranai marshland in South Chennai. From there, water enters the Buckingham Canal. If this part isn’t properly maintained, the city’s southern parts will be prone to flooding.
🌧️ Inspecting flood mitigation progress
Chief Minister MK Stalin will inspect ongoing flood mitigation measures in the city.
What’s it about? Stalin will meet with engineers from the Indian Railways and the Chennai Corporation to expedite flood mitigation work. Several flood-control initiatives across the city have been repeatedly delayed.
- Stalin will inspect the Perambur culvert near the Ganespuram subway, which has been delayed for three years. The Corporation proposed the project in 2021, but concerns from the Railways have delayed it.
- Many areas near railway lines were flooded during the recent rains. The Chennai Corporation is building temporary drains in flood-prone areas and plans to install pumps to help remove water.
Need for culverts: In areas like Kodambakkam and T Nagar, the lack of culverts has caused flooding since water can’t drain across railway tracks. Corporation engineers tried to build drains along a different alignment rather than focusing on culverts across the railway land.
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🗞️ In other news…
- The storied history of the military engineers who built the Indian Railways.
- A high-level bridge has been proposed to replace the causeway over the Cooum in Padi Kuppam.
- Light to moderate rain for the next few days has been forecasted by the IMD for Chennai.
- Illegal commercial construction continues unabated inside the Pulicat bird sanctuary.
- The lack of public toilets has inconvenienced 800 families at Thideer Nagar in Purasawalkam.
That’s it for today. Have a great day!