Articles by News Desk

Kala Ghoda Arts Festival returns The Kala Ghoda Arts Festival (KGAF) returns on February 3rd, when the streets of Kala Ghoda will be turned into workshop spaces, theatres, and dance stages. Restaurants in the area will also be showcasing curated menus for the occasion. Earlier art installation at the festival. Pic: Indu Harikumar, Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0) The popular nine-day festival, founded in 1999, draws visitors from Mumbai and around the world. It showcases multicultural arts, crafts, urban design and architecture events and is considered as one of India's largest street art festivals. Kala Ghoda, in south of Mumbai, is…

Push for suburban railway, city projects The Union Budget has allocated Rs 450 crore for the BSRP (Bengaluru Suburban Railway Project), with a total capital outlay of Rs 1,350 crore for 2023-24. However, not a single rupee has been released by the Centre for a similar sum earmarked for the project in the previous financial year, sources said. Meanwhile, the Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Limited has sought an €800-million (Rs 7,140 crore) soft loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the German investment and development bank KfW, which will cover 60% of the project cost. Parallelly, the state…

Water crunch for half of Mumbai on Jan 30 and 31st Due to the connection of a new 4,000 mm diameter channel to the water treatment plant in Bhandup and other repair works, several parts of Mumbai will face water cuts or reductions between January 30th and 31st. Wards that will receive no water for the 24 hours from 10 am on January 30th are: H/East (Bandra East), H/West (Bandra West), K/East (Andheri East), K/West (Andheri West), P/North (Malad), P/South (Goregaon), R/North (Dahisar), R/South (Kandivali, Charkop and Poisar), R/Central (Borivai), N (Gatkopar), L (Kurla) and the west side of S…

No more power cuts in T Nagar Following the installation of two new substations and six new feeders, T Nagar has become a power-cut-free zone. The area has over one lakh connections comprising a mixed load of both domestic and commercial connections. The installation of the aforementioned infrastructure has brought down the overall load of the existing feeders from 80% to 30%. This helps in back feeding - switching the power supply from one feeder to another - in case of a high load in one feeder. Eventually, the number of calls received in Minnagam for complaints about power cuts…

R-Day at Chamrajnagar Idgah Maidan For the first time, Republic Day was celebrated, on January 26th, at the Chamrajnagar Idgah Maidan ground amid tight security, as North taluk assistant commissioner, revenue department, Shivanna, unfurled the national flag at 8 am. MLA BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan and Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha MP, PC Mohan, were also present, under elaborate security. Naadageethe and Raitha Geete were played, and later, students from BBMP and government schools performed cultural programmes. The West Division police deployed over 150 police personnel and installed over 50 CCTV cameras. There were celebrations at a number of places in…

One of the main functions of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) is to prepare the Master Plan for the Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA) that extends over 1189 sq. km. and comprises Chennai Corporation, 8 Municipalities, 11 Town Panchayats and 179 villages covered in 10 Panchayats Unions. The CMDA has now started the preparatory works for the Third Master Plan which is likely to be notified by December 2025 or April 2026. As part of the preparation of the 20-year (2026 to 2046) vision document for the Third Master Plan for Chennai, the CMDA has been conducting visioning workshops and…

In a tragic incident in early January this year, a mother and her two-year-old son passed away when an under-construction metro pillar reinforcement structure in Outer Ring Road (ORR), near HBR Layout, collapsed on them. This led to righteous outrage among citizens. Questions were raised not only about safety at the metro construction site but also about the roads in front of the Metro stations. How safe is it to walk and cross the roads while construction is going on? How challenging is it to commute to metro stations? How much importance is given to fire safety? How are dust…

Air quality in Chennai worsens since 2019 The amount of particulate matter in the air of Chennai has risen in 2022 than 2019. Then, it was the second most polluted city in India, with respect to PM 2.5 levels, according to CPCB.  In terms of PM 10 levels, Chennai has ranked higher and become the third least polluted city in Chennai. In 2019, the PM10 level was 55 units and last year, the amount was 65 units.  The National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) tracker report said that cities that had cleaner air in 2019 deteriorated over the years.  Experts say…

Egg prices shoot up in Mumbai due to shortage The price of eggs has gone up in the city due to a shortage in supply caused by the extended winter season, which led to a decrease in production. There is a shortage of 10 lakh chicken eggs in Mumbai daily and the cost per dozen has increased from 66 rupees to over 80 rupees. In November, the wholesale rate of 100 eggs was around Rs 475 to Rs 500, which has now touched Rs 600. The Department of Animal Husbandry in Maharashtra is developing a long-term policy that would enable…

BBMP's annual budget preponed The BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) will present its annual budget day for the next financial year on February 15th, in anticipation of the start of the model code of conduct before the Assembly elections. Last year's budget, presented on March 31st, was delayed as the budget copy was released at midnight. This year, the BBMP is in a hurry to present the budget as it wants to get the state's approval before the code of conduct sets in. Meanwhile, former mayors and corporators have demanded that the allocation made in the name of corporator and…