GENRE: In Focus

On February 1st, union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the final (Interim) budget from the current government that will seek an electoral mandate in a few weeks from now. The minister’s speech had only two major announcements on urban public transport: one, that e-buses would be encouraged, and two, that Metro Rail and NaMo Bharat trains would be further supported in large cities. This followed the same pattern of allocation for transport that the union government has made over the five years of its current term. Indian cities have been grappling to contain heavy traffic and emissions from the large…

When Jitendra Dixit, a journalist and author, who lives in Wadala, went by the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) or Atal Setu, he found that it barely saved him 5-10 minutes from Mumbai to Pune in spite of paying a toll of Rs 250.   The MTHL, which connects Navi Mumbai and south Mumbai, was inaugurated with great fanfare on January 12th 2024. But the toll fee seems to have put off a lot of people, because in its first month till February 13th 2024, only 8,13,774 commuters had used it. It collected revenue of Rs 1, 39, 585,310 with a…

Fransisca Dantas, a visually challenged teacher, has a unique accessibility challenge while boarding the Mumbai local trains. She travels five days of the week from Andheri to Dadar by the local train for work. At Andheri, announcements about the arrival of trains, whether they are 12 or 15 coach, are erratic. This means passengers don't know where the women's compartment will be. Like other women commuters, she cannot run to get into the women’s compartment once the train arrives. “If it is a 15 coach, people start running helter skelter. With a first class season ticket I can get into…

On 22nd January at around 9.00 pm, three employees of Western Railway, Vasu Mitra, Somnath Lambture, and Sachin Wankhede were mowed down by a train as they were attending to a point failure on the railway track between Vasai and Nalasopara. The repair work was almost completed, when a fourth employee, who was deputed to signal the arrival of a train was sent to Vasai station to bring some tools, thus leaving them oblivious to the train approaching them, says one Vasai Road Railway Police official. This accident comes close on the heels of a report released by the GRP…

Six months ago, the Tambaram City Municipal Corporation carried out work on East Main Road and West Main Road in  Sri Prashanthi Colony, Madambakkam. In the past ten years, these roads were re-laid three times and each time, their heights increased considerably. The new roads came as a relief for residents only until the onset of the Northeast monsoon in 2023.  As the interior roads including the 2nd, 3rd and 4th cross streets of Sri Prashanthi Colony have not been re-laid, excess water runs down to these roads which now lie at a lower level compared to  the main roads.…

We have been witnessing the impact of climate change over the last few years. Flooding, inundation and subsequent power cuts have become routine during every monsoon. The poor road infrastructure makes matters worse for residents already grappling with the problems brought on by floods. Over a decade ago, the State government made milling a mandatory requirement for every road that is being resurfaced in Chennai.  However, none of the contractors or local officials adhere to the specifications laid down by the Indian Road Congress. Proper gradient and camber are not being maintained while resurfacing the roads and the height of…

Renie Baptista, lives in a 100-old-legacy house in Matharpacady. The house, inherited by her father-in-law from his mother, invokes a mixture of legacy, emotional attachment to the neighbourhood, where people share similar cultural and social ethos. She also enjoys a sense of space in her 2000 sq ft bungalow, which, even now, is a sturdy house.  Shifting into a flat that could come with water and other infrastructural issues bothers her along with the worry of losing her link with her community spaces forever. Many others in Matharpacady share her anxiety. The quaint old charming bungalows and bylanes of Mazgaon village…

It has been three years since M Sangeetha, a 25-year-old resident of Nanganallur delivered a girl at the Government Kasturba Gandhi Hospital for Women and Children in Chennai. Sangeetha is entitled to benefits under the Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy Maternity Benefit Scheme (Dr MRMBS)-Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), which provides cash benefits of ₹14,000 and health kits worth ₹4,000 to pregnant women in instalments.  Despite multiple enquiries with the Nanganallur Urban Primary Health Centre (UPHC), Sangeetha has not been able to access the benefits, even after submitting her address proof and supplementary documents. Her husband, a delivery agent, earns just…

In November, during a fight over video games among a group of 10-year-old boys at a government-supported school in Indore, Rishi of Class 4 was attacked over 100 times with compasses by three of his classmates. In another incident of bullying, two boys from a private school in Bangalore’s Kanakapura pressured a wealthy schoolmate into repeatedly stealing money and jewellery from his house, threatening him with serious injury if he didn’t.  After he was caught red-handed by his mother, he decided to kill himself rather than face the bullies, but was saved in time. When Smriti from a missionary school…

On December 4 2023, Chennai plunged into chaos after Cyclone Michaung caused heavy rains and flooding in different parts of the city. The visuals of the Vadakkupattu Lake (Medavakkam Periya Eri) overflowing and breaking a compound wall, with cars in the nearby apartment blocks getting washed away because of heavy inundation, is a sight etched in the memories of residents. A citizen audit done by a group of residents and experts to investigate the causes of the large-scale inundation has laid bare the negligence of the State Water Resources Department (WRD). According to the detailed audit, the lack of proper…