Registration department adopts biometrics for return of documents

To ensure transparency and speedy processing, the registration department has introduced biometric processing, enabling return of documents within 2 working days from the sub-registrar office.  Earlier,it could take upto three months for a buyer to get back the documents post registration of their property.

Meanwhile, the department has also introduced First In First Out (FIFO) system to  eliminate discretionary prioritisation of registration. The time slots would be alloted at the time of online registration.

Source:  New Indian Express | The Times of India

Awareness Campaign for Rain Water Harvesting

Chennai Metrowater will shortly launch a campaign for raising awareness about  rain water harvesting (RWH) in the city through multiple media. Mandatory RWH was enforced by the former CM J Jayalalithaa, back in 2003 and Tamil Nadu leads the country in the harvesting of rain water. However, over time,  not all RWH structures are maintained well, while some are not  functional, thus  creating the need to revisit implementation.

Metro water officials will inspect RWH structures in individual , multi storeyed  and commerical buildings. They have also planned to launch a social media campaign on Facebook, where residents will be asked to share pictures of RWH structures in their houses or apartments, on the MetroWater FB page. The best entries will win prizes

Here is a guide to rain water harvesting in your home.

Source:  The Times of India, The Times of India

Metro to reduce frequency of trains

For Commuters of Chennai Metro Rail, it will be a longer wait for a train.  Against a train every five minutes during peak hours and every 20 minutes during non peak hours, there will be a direct train only once in 14 minutes from Chennai Central to Chennai airport and Chennai Central to St. Thomas Mount respectively. Other timing changes will be available on the website of CMRL.

Nearly 50,000 people take the metro every day, however experts say this figure is much lower than its capacity, and lack of last mile connectivity is cited as one of the reasons for this. Another report said that commuters preferred share autos to share taxis, at the stations where Chennai Metro Rail had made available this facility. Commuters also continue to be unable to use their cellphones at the underground station of the Metro, due to tariff disagreements between CMRL and telecom service providers.

Source:  The Hindu, The Hindu, The Times of India

Storm Water Drains to be built on flood prone roads

The Greater Chennai Corporation has announced an outlay of Rs 480 cr on infrastructure that will help the city handle the monsoon better. Of this, Rs 300 cr is likely to be spent on construction of Storm Water Drains, on important roads that have been previously highlighted as prone to flooding. The report stated that Corporation officials were hopeful that the work would be completed by October end.

Citizen groups are a worried lot. They say the monsoon is barely ten weeks away and  such work should have ideally commenced much earlier in the year. Starting it now will only aggravate the flooding situation

Source: The Hindu

[Compiled by Sandhya Raju]