City Buzz: Drinking water from Chennai lakes |PM-UDAY camps extended…and more

Other news: Housing sales in major cities decline, drones for police patrolling and rise in demand for office space.

Chennai lakes to become drinking water sources

The Chennai Water Resources Department (WRD) plans to transform the city’s lakes into drinking water sources to cater to the fast-growing population. It plans to add 21 tmcft of storage capacity, including rainwater storage capacity, create new reservoirs, expand and interlink water bodies, and improve water flow.

Chennai’s six reservoirs, with a capacity of 13.213 tmcft, are currently catering to the city’s needs. However, according to official sources, this is below the annual drinking and industrial water demand of 24 tmcft, which is expected to rise to 34 tmcft by 2035. Discussions are also ongoing with the revenue department to remove encroachments and address pollution in the tanks.

Recently, Kattur and Thatmanji tanks have been upgraded, increasing their combined capacity from 58.27 million cubic feet (mcft) to 350 mcft. 

Source: The New Indian Express


Read more: New look, old problems: Residents question Rs 43-crore Retteri Lake restoration plan


PM-UDAY camps extended

Single-window camps for Pradhan Mantri-Unauthorised Colonies in Delhi Awas Adhikar Yojana (PM-UDAY) will be extended until March 2025, following Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena’s direction to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).

The action has been taken due to the huge public participation in the camps, which offer property ownership rights in unauthorised colonies, sources said. The camps attracted 19,313 applicants, of which 3,599 were new. About 283 properties were registered, giving final ownership rights to property holders.

It enabled seamless processing of property documents and registrations, eliminating bureaucratic delays and ensuring faster service delivery. The camps were held on weekends between November 30 and December 12, aiming to ensure proactive participation from residents. 

Source: The New Indian Express, The Hindu

Drones for police patrols

Drone cameras have been distributed to 28 police stations at NTR district in Vijayawada for modern law enforcement and safety. The technology is used for innovative ‘cloud patrolling’ techniques, automatic surveillance, crime scene mapping, traffic and crowd management, disaster response and targeted operations like anti-narcotics and sand surveillance beats. 

Other advantages are identifying sensitive spots, crime scene constructions and location mapping. 

The patrolling initiative will also help check ganja peddling and consumption, sexual harassment and consumption of liquor in open spaces.

Source: The New Indian Express, The Hindu

Housing sales, supply decline 4% in 2024

Housing sales in top seven cities, including Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), National Capital Region (NCR), Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata declined by 4% this year, according to real estate consultancy ANAROCK Research. Supply dropped by 7%.

About 4,59,650 houses were sold in 2024, less than 4,76,530 last year. Kolkata recorded the steepest decline, followed by Chennai. However, sales in MMR and Bengaluru increased by 1% and 2%. 

The main reasons for the decline include elections and slow project approval. A three-year growth in sales and launches from 2021, slowed down in 2024. Though sales fell, sales value increased by 16% from ₹4.88 lakh crore in 2023 to ₹5.68 lakh crore this year.

Source: Business Standard, Hindustan Times 

Gross leasing of office space rises

This year, office space demand was strong, as gross leasing of workspace rose by 14%, to a record 66.4 million square feet across six major cities, said Colliers India. Gross leasing of Grade A office spaces stood at 58.2 million square feet last year.

Bengaluru was up by 39% and saw a record office leasing of 21.7 million square feet, from 15.6 million square feet in 2023. The gross office space leasing in Hyderabad rose 56%, Mumbai witnessed a 43% rise, but Pune recorded only a modest 4% rise in office space leasing.

However, the demand fell in Chennai by 35% and Delhi-NCR by 16%. The demand was mainly driven by technology firms, engineering and manufacturing companies, besides financial services providers.

Source: Business Standard

[Compiled by Revathi Siva Kumar]

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