City experiences wettest day of the year
On Thursday, the sky opened up like never before to record 108 mm of rainfall in a single day, making it the wettest day of the year. It broke the record of 88.2 mm of rainfall that the city experienced on September 11, 2013, which was the highest rainfall recorded in one single day.
The Met office attributed this downpour to the presence of upper cyclonic circulation off the south coast of Andhra Pradesh that resulted in widespread thunderstorms across Chennai and neighbouring suburbs.
The reservoirs in the city, that has been bone dry for more than four months, have now received inflows equivalent to 10 days of Chennai’s water supply. According to officials of the Water Resources Department, the total storage of the four lakes climbed from a mere 15 million cubic feet on Thursday morning to 273 mcft on Friday, due to heavy rainfall.
Meanwhile, the Meteorological Department has forecast that rainfall will continue over the coastal areas.
Source: UNI | The Hindu
Manure at your doorstep
The Chennai Corporation has announced that it will deliver manure made from the waste collected in all 15 zones of the city, at citizens’ doorsteps. The compost will be sold at Rs 20 per kilo.
Out of the 4,930 tonnes of waste collected, about 400 tonnes of biodegradable waste is used to produce manure in vermicomposting, micro composting units and the mulch pits set up at the corporation parks.
As of now, the corporation has 190 tonnes of manure certified by the National Agro Foundation. Interested citizens can call or WhatsApp 9445194802.
Source: The Times of India
Wimco nagar to Washermanpet Metro by next June
The extended phase 1 of Metro between Wimco Nagar to Washermanpet will be operational in June 2020, and CMRL will soon add 10 new trains to its fleet, to operate in this line. Once operational, the connectivity in North Chennai with the rest of the places will see a marked improvement.
Only in August, the Metro rail frequency between Washermanpet and Airport was increased due to commuters’ demand. There is a metro running between these points every five minutes with 35 trains being operated during peak hours and 25 during non-peak hours.
Source: The Times of India
State bus fleet requires overhaul
The Centre’s move to set up automatic testing stations for issuing fitness certificate for transport vehicles has brought out the sad plight of the state transport buses. In its affidavit submitted before Madras High Court on November 2017, the State transport department admitted that as on September 30, 2017, as many as 15,184 buses of the total fleet of 22,203 are aged.
The trade unions have said that over 50 per cent of the state fleet will fail the fitness test at the automatic testing stations.
Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) and State Express Transport Corporation (SETC) have the highest share of worn-out buses in the state. Of the 3,843 MTC buses, 2,960 (77.02 per cent) are over-aged, while 908 buses (78.28 per cent) buses of SETC ahve exceeded their life times.
Source: The New Indian Express
Multimodal hub at Broadway soon
A 21-storey multi-modal hub of 10 lakh sq ft, built under a public-private partnership and integrating the Chennai Metro, is being planned in Broadway. The facility is expected to have parking space for 1,904 cars and 1,820 motorcycles.
The development of the infrastructure includes an interchange hub for intra-city buses, Metro, MRTS and para-transit modes of transportation. The bus stand will be developed with 97 bays across two floors. The lower ground floor will have 53 bus bays, while the upper level will have 44.
Along with the final feasibility report for this, the final feasibility report of the 13-floor multi-level car parking facility with commercial space on Nungambakkam High Road has also been completed. The parking lot will have a total capacity of 238 cars and 320 motorcycles, including commercial development.
Source: The Hindu