Good morning, Chennai!
🌤️ Today’s weather: High: 37 ℃ | Low: 27 ℃ | Mostly sunny weather for the day.
🧐 Did you know? Thyagaraya Nagar, more famously known as T Nagar, was named after PT Thyagaraya Chetty, one of the founders of the Justice Party during India’s freedom struggle.
🌳 Highlighting urban greenery
Visual artist Parvathi Nayar has started a community art project to showcase Chennai’s urban greenery.
What’s it about? The project, named Travelling Plants, is open to all who want to recognise and value the city’s greenery. The city’s greenery is something many take for granted, and this is a way for people to appreciate its value on the city’s overall biodiversity.
- The process involves clicking a photo of a tree or plant using a smartphone and e-mailing that to [email protected] by June 2, along with your name and the area where the photo was taken.
- The city’s green cover has been under threat for many years due to rapid urbanisation. This project hopes to help raise awareness about the importance of greenery and its conservation.
Showcase: Following the announcement, the team saw a positive response from Chennaiites, who sent in several photos. Some of them will be a part of an installation at Alliance Francaise.
🛍️ Co-optex mall
The state government has plans for a dedicated mall to promote handloom and handicraft products.
What’s it about? Members of the Tamil Nadu Handloom Weavers’ Cooperative Society, i.e., Co-optex, will now have a dedicated mall at Egmore to showcase their products. Called the Unity Mall, it will be built at the Egmore premises of Co-optex.
- The malls’ estimated cost is ₹227 crore, and the cooperative society has applied for its environmental clearance. The nine-storey air-conditioned mall will have a total area of 4.66 lakh square feet.
- The mall is expected to be complete in two years and is being built under the Centre’s ‘One District One Product’ (ODOP) scheme. The mall will also showcase products from other states.
Additional facilities: To help raise awareness about local handicrafts, two Digital Experience Centres will be set up for the public to learn how handloom fabrics are made and the people behind them.
🚆 More Memu coaches
The Southern Railway has decided to add more coaches to Memu trains from Chennai.
What’s it about? Mainline Electric Multiple Units (Memu) trains run long-distance routes to connect small towns where suburban trains don’t normally operate. For a long time, passengers have had to deal with overcrowding due to high demand. Now, the Southern Railway will add more coaches.
- The existing 8-car Memu rakes will be converted to 12-car rakes. More toilets will also be added. The Railway Board has sanctioned these new coaches for several zones, including Chennai.
- The trains operate on the Chennai-Vellore-Tiruvannamalai and sometimes the Chennai-Arakkonam or Chennai-Katpadi routes.
Additional route requests: Some frequent travellers say more Memu trains are needed on the Chengalpet, Villupuram, and Tiruvannamalai routes. The demand is high between Chennai and Tiruvannamalai.
✈️ Airport extension plans shelved
The state government has scrapped its plan to acquire land to expand the airport.
What’s it about? The government planned to get 193 acres of land for the airport’s expansion. That plan has now been scrapped due to problems in acquiring the land. The decision came after the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) surveyed six land parcels.
- The plan was to get 133 acres to expand the airport and 60 acres for road connectivity. Not only would the cost be high, but the area had several buildings.
- Apart from government land, private land parcels would also be needed to facilitate the expansion and make Chennai an aviation hub on par with New Delhi and Mumbai.
Original plans: AAI first asked the state government to get 306 acres to build an international terminal on the other side of the Adyar River. The cost was too high, and many families would’ve been affected. Officials also wanted to modify the existing cargo terminal.
✨ Things to do…
Here are some fun and interesting things to do in the city over the weekend!
- Get your groove on with a live performance by Blues Conscience this Saturday.
- Engage in conversations over a beverage at the 1 GB Talks this Sunday.
- Enjoy the IPL final at a live open-air screening this Sunday.
- Spin your tales of stories and poems at A House of T Open Mic this Sunday.
- Get ready to sing along to your favourite tunes at the Nenjodu Kalanthidu with Bandish this Sunday.
🛋️ Local Lounge
Yesterday’s Poll Results:
- I have learned to paint: 37.5%
- I haven’t learned to paint: 62.5% 🏆
Answers to Yesterday’s Question:
What period of history would you like to learn more about?
Suchi: “Pre Independence period”
Shiva: “650 BCE – 550 BCE. Supposedly this is when early Pandyan empire was established, would like to know more about this period.”
That’s it for today. Have a great weekend!