Chennai discussions II

[OrbitZen]

Play area for kids, washing place for a few and now its food for the 'Cattle class'



Dinamalar

[Arul Murugan]

T. Nagar bursting at the seams

R. Sujatha



Traffic came to standstill, owing to festival shoppers’ crowd

— PHOTO: S.S.KUMAR

BUMPER TO BUMPER: Traffic on Bhashyam Street near the Panagal Park junction in T. Nagar on Friday.

CHENNAI: Shoppers who came to T. Nagar on Friday would have probably regretted their decision. Vehicular traffic in T. Nagar came to a standstill several times, thanks to the festival shopping crowd.

Police had a tough time regulating traffic as vehicles piled up along Venkatnarayana Road, G.N. Chetty Road, North Usman Road and Thyagaraya Road by noon.

Shoppers struggled to move around and autorickshaw drivers demanded exorbitant fare to drive through overcrowded streets. K. Saravanan, a car driver, said, “It took two hours to negotiate a two-km stretch from the Kodambakkam junction to T. Nagar.

The traffic hold-up began at the Kodambakkam junction around 11 a.m. When we entered T. Nagar, it was 1 p.m.”

While MTC buses managed to wind their way slowly, cars, autorickshaws and two-wheelers clogged the roads. Traffic was heavy around the junctions near Kodambakkam-North Usman Road, Venkatnarayana Road-Burkit Road and Thyagaraya Road-Dr. Nair Road. Many who hired autorickshaws or cabs got off midway and tried to walk to the destinations.

At most places, pedestrians struggled to cross the road.

C.N.R. Selvaraj, who works in T. Nagar, said he had to wait for 10 minutes before he could cross G. N. Chetty Road near the Kannadasan statue. Though traffic police towed away vehicles from several roads, it did not deter many from parking along the road margins on other roads such as Thyagaraya Road and Bhashyam Street.

A commuter had a hard time bargaining with an autorickshaw driver for a trip from Coats Road to the Doraiswamy Road junction, a distance of about 1 km.

The driver demanded Rs.40. Another auto driver charged Rs.70 for a trip from Panagal Park to Trust Puram, three km away.

Sources in the Mambalam and Soundarapandianar Angadi police stations said there were no complaints of missing children. Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Shakeel Akhter said that since certain traffic regulations were introduced recently, it led to some confusion. By evening, motorists were getting familiar with the changes and the traffic flow became easier, he said.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/10/04/stor...0455460600.htm

[Arul Murugan]

Hope one day the entire Panagal Park area will become the walking street of Chennai!

And is there any plan for multilevel parking in T,nagar?

[MyCity123]

City—based Repco Infrastructure Development Co is in talks with the Tamil Nadu government to develop vacant land on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis.

“We are discussing various BOT projects with the Tamil Nadu government, the total value of which is around Rs.100 crore,” M. Balasubramanian, managing director of the Repatriates Cooperative Finance and Development Bank (Repco Bank) said.

The Rs.20-crore equity of Repco Infrastructure is shared equally between Repco Bank and its subsidiary Repco Home Finance.

The infrastructure arm was floated with an idea of developing vacant land owned by Tamil Nadu government departments, Balasubramanian said.

“As majority of Repco Bank’s shares are owned by the central and four southern state governments, we are hopeful of getting good business,” he added.

Repco Infrastructure’s first project, a 20,000 square feet commercial complex, will be shortly inaugurated here.

The Rs.207-crore income Repco Bank has also floated an IT subsidiary to house all its IT activities under one roof and also to sell core banking software services to other cooperative banks.

“The new subsidiary will take care of the IT needs of the group and also target IT business from other cooperative banks in the country,” Balasubramanian said.

With an initial investment of Rs.10 crore from Repco Bank, Repco Infotech will start operations in January 2010.

Source :http://beta.thehindu.com/business/co...ticle28462.ece

[ChicagoThalapathi]

Originally Posted by OrbitZen

Source: Dinamalar

Is there any updates on the new cricket stadium near IT Highway?

[Sathisht77]

Originally Posted by ChicagoThalapathi

Is there any updates on the new cricket stadium near IT Highway?

I think they are not going ahead with this new stadium. That is reason why they are remodelling Chepauk stadium.

[Arul Murugan]

Few weeks ago there was discussion on the "beach cricket" in this thread!

Here is the one of the picture, how cricketers use the service road in marina.



Dinakaran

No one is against the cricket lovers playing in the beach. Just police needs to do organizing. Allot a place in marina for playing cricket or volley ball. Even the news item carries the same suggestion. Just simply organize it.

No wonder one day they may occupy the "Kamarajar salai" for playing, just like few days ago bike competition held in "Kamarajar salai"

[nsantha2]

Originally Posted by Arul Murugan

Few weeks ago there was discussion on the "beach cricket" in this thread!

Here is the one of the picture, how cricketers use the service road in marina.



Dinakaran

No one is against the cricket lovers playing in the beach. Just police needs to do organizing. Allot a place in marina for playing cricket or volley ball. Even the news item carries the same suggestion. Just simply organize it.

No wonder one day they may occupy the "Kamarajar salai" for playing, just like few days ago bike competition held in "Kamarajar salai"

Wow, I had no idea they were on the road itself - yeah, this is actually pretty bad. I thought they were playing on the sand.

[MyCity123]

The problems of T.Nagar, one of the oldest areas in the city, only increase by the year. As FSI ratio (Floor space index, which is the constructed area in a building, against the size of the building plot) increases in commercial establishments, both human and vehicular traffic goes up. Estimates show that the roads in this very popular commercial hub are taking about three to four times traffic than what they actually can.

Planners concur on two points — that the cure to T.Nagar’s ills lies in giving priority to pedestrians and discouraging entry of vehicles and effective enforcement of rules is a must.

The former Anna University professor, K.P. Subramanian, says that construction of a parking lot is not the answer. “At the rate by which the number of vehicles is increasing, two years from now the facility would be of no use.” A congestion tax by which premium rates would be charged for entry and parking of shoppers cars must be levied, he suggests.

Urban Planner A.N. Sachitanandan says that though constructed with good intention, the flyovers have only added to the congestion. “Once you pedestrianise the area, the hawkers will not be an issue as they will not be occupying space meant for vehicles. Battery-operated vehicles can be operated for the old and physically challenged so that their movement too will not be curtailed.” He also suggests that a town planning tribunal be set up pertaining to development issues.

The former Chief Planner, S. Gurusamy, said that all stakeholders, including hawkers and shoppers, must be consulted before doing anything drastic. An alternative shopping area also needs to be planned, he added.

Managing director of Navin Housing and Properties R.Kumar says that parking lots should be developed by collecting money from the businesses. “It is for the betterment of their businesses that the parking lots are to be constructed. The first thing we need to do is to arrest further illegal development. The government must take stock of the situation and arrest any further growth unless and until infrastructure is improved.”

Source:http://www.hindu.com/2009/10/05/stor...0558590400.htm

[Raji7373]

Is this possible really ...don't think so
Ex : Marina is getting beautified by spending several crores of rupees, but near by kupam residents wash clothes and do all household work in the beautified area ( recently saw in dinamalar) . So before beautification of a place, government has to first vacate near by slums also levy heavy fines with imprisonment when they try to dirty it...unless stringent measures are implemented we will not reap the fruits for money spent . Vacating slums …not a easy joke as politicians think they are the vote banks !!!!



NEWS
With the state government going ahead with its ambitious plan to make "Chennai slum-free by 2013", the voices of opposition to large-scale displacement of slum-dwellers to the city outskirts are also gaining momentum. As many as 1.11 lakh poor families living on the river margins, road margins and places required for public purposes would have to be shifted.
According to Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) estimates, of the 1.10 lakh families living in undeveloped slums, 75,498 are living in 150 objectionable slums. "The areas occupied by them are to be retrieved and handed over to the land-owning department to implement programmes like road widening, desilting and strengthening of bunds," a senior TNSCB official said.
More News .....Deccan chornicle

[Raji7373]

From flyovers that sweep the sky to the mosquito-infested shanties that line its stinking rivers, Singara Chennai is struggling with the weight of promises of development, both past and present.
As countries across the globe ponder over the United Nations theme `planning for the urban future' for World Habitat Day falling on October 5 this year, experts in the city see several challenges for planners.

With 900 vehicles adding to the city's choked roads everyday, there are bigger problems than managing traffic and generating parking spaces, says Mr A.R.Doss, former chief urban planner, Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA).

"Unlike in countries like Malaysia, urban planning for the city is done for big projects without a thought for the next 25 years, let alone a century. The East Coast Road, for example, should have been envisaged as a six-lane corridor at the very beginning. With cumbersome litigation processes, even making it a fourlane highway will take double the time, making traffic conditions worse," he explains.

While the ambitious plans of erecting a `financial city' and `health city' fall in line with other world metropolises like Singapore and Dubai, the crucial hindsight in Chennai's case is the move to locate them on the IT corridor, with no consideration for the pressure it would put on resources like water and electricity, Mr Doss explains.

Planning is often left to chance, says Prof Suresh Kuppuswamy, director, Centre for Human Settlements, Anna University.
"When the first master plan was envisaged, the city was supposed to grow along the national highways that radiate outward, in what was known as the `finger plan'."

From a small area of 200 sqkm, the city is now set to expand over 1,200 square kilometres. But there is still no clear direction whether growth should be sprawling or compact, he explains.

Planning will be successful only when each city is made to function like a state, says M.G. Devasahayam, managing trustee, SUSTAIN, an NGO that works for urban development. Cities need individual attention and a strong system of governance, he explains.

Source

[Raji7373]

Finally we are getting machines....death of poor scavengers can be avoided

Metrowater Has Ordered 175 Desilting Machines

Chennai: Soon, manual desilting of manholes in the city will become a thing of the past. The Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB or Metrowater) which is currently using three machines to remove silt and blocks from the sewage network has decided to increase their number to 175 in time for the north-east monsoon.
Every day, the CMWSSB receives five complaints of overflowing sewage, mainly due to blocks, at each of its 160 depots. Earlier, workers physically entered the manholes and removed the clogs and desilted them. Metrowater has over 300 sewer workers, including contract labourers just for this purpose.
Metrowater, which has 44 desilt-man machines, has ordered nine more and floated tenders for another 36. Similarly, it has ordered 10 new jetrodding machines to add to the existing 45 and plans to acquire another 25. Plans are underway to purchase jetting-cum-suction machines and to use them on a trial basis.

Times Of India

[Raji7373]

Chennai does not have to look at Europe or Singapore to manage its waterways and deal with the severe shortage of housing * the two most pressing urban problems that experts identified for the Tamil capital at a workshop on World Habitat Day held in the city on Monday.
Indian cities like Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata have taken up several successful projects for water management and slum clearance that could be modeled here, they say.

While Ahmedabad took up the ambitious Sabramati river front project to clean up the stench ridden, sewer clogged waterbody, that nestles the famous Sabramati Ashram on its banks, neighbouring Bengaluru recycles and uses 15 per cent of the 400 million gallons of wastewater it produces in a day, said Mr V.Suresh, advisor, Good Governance India Foundation.

"By building intercept sewers along the river to prevent solid waste from flowing into it, and rehabilitating the slums on its banks, Ahmedabad has done for Sabramati what London has done for Thames, and Frankfurt has done for the Rhine," he explained. A lesson or two could be learnt from the Bengali capital when it comes to housing for the poor. "Kolkata's policy of public-private partnership has proved that despite hiccups, affordable housing is not only possible, but a crucial solution for tackling urban poverty," Mr Suresh said.

Another challenge for Chennai was providing legal rights for the faceless mass of the informal sector, said Mr MG Devasahayam, managing trustee, SUSTAIN.
"Even though they form nearly 80 per cent of the city's population, informal workers have access to hardly 10 per cent of the resources. Left with no choice, people would be forced to violate zoning and other rules," he pointed out.

Deccan Chornicle

[satishanu]

The Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) on Thursday retrieved about four acres of land, worth more than Rs 200 crore, from encroachers at
Arumbakkam.

In a place where the market value per ground (2400 sq ft) is close to Rs 3 crore, the board had given away about 8.5 acres of precious land to encroachers over the years. While the board managed to retrieve 1.3 acres of land earlier, about 7.2 acres were still encroached by slum dwellers and avaricious land grabbers who had set up commercial complexes as tall as five floors. On Thursday morning, the TNHB officials landed on the scene with heavy police protection and six earth moving machines. By dusk, when the demolition drive was called off for the day, 70 commercial establishments were razed to ground and four acres of land were recovered.

"We will continue with our demolition drive against commercial establishments on Friday. There is about 1.5 acres of land where slum dwellers are located. But we will evict them only after providing alternative accommodation," said a senior official in the TNHB.

It was not an easy task for the officials. People who had been occupying the encroached premises for decades put up a stiff resistance. About 500 people tried to halt the eviction drive but they withdrew after police stepped in and warned stringent action. "We gave proper notices to all the illegal occupants on September 18 to vacate the premises before October 4. When they did not heed, we had to resort to physical eviction," said the official.

The board had acquired the land from the revenue department in 1966. The board is working on a plan to develop the property once all the encroachments are removed.

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...ow/5103824.cms

[kpgopal]

Originally Posted by satishanu

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...ow/5103824.cms

Not sure that TNHB is going to use the land. The main reason for the eviction should be the Maduravoyal to port High speed corridor. The evicted area is exactly the point where the corridor turns from the centre of the road ( Maduravoyal to Koyambedu section) towards the cooum . As per the current plan there will be at least 10 lanes (4 for corridor and 6 for PH road) at this point. Always wondered how they are going to accomodate that many lanes in Arumbakkam. Now it is quite clear.

[prasanna]

Source

CHENNAI: Several places in the city's suburbs are facing a peculiar problem. Many of the roads, badly battered during last year's monsoon, are

yet be re-laid and this year's monsoon is almost ready to set in! Worse, other related works are only half done.

Neither the respective local bodies nor the Kancheepuram district authorities, under whose administration come several of Chennai's southern suburbs, appear to have learnt any lessons.

"We have been asking the president and other panchayat officials to raise the level of roads in some places and lay bitumen-topped roads in other areas in our locality but they keep saying they are yet to get funds from the district administration. Can we believe that they have been trying to get funds for one year?" says 62-year-old K R Surendran, a retired bank manager of Vinayaka Nagar in Okkiyan-Thoraipakkam.

Surendran's house as well as hundreds of others in Vinayaka Nagar, Ananda Nagar and MCN Nagar were surrounded by knee-deep water that remained there for nearly a month. So far, the rural local body has done precious little to tackle the problem. "They (the district administration) have not sanctioned any funds so far. They simply visit the areas and ask us for a report. Nothing happens," said panchayat officials.

Six km from Vinayaka Nagar in Okkiyan-Thoraipakkam is Ram Nagar in Madipakkam where hundreds of structures high-rise buildings, multi-storey apartment complexes, shopping malls, restaurants, petty shops, schools and many houses were inundated. Fire fighters, along with a few lucky residents, had to struggle for hours to rescue the unlucky majority who were trapped.

A year later, not moch has changed. One of the major reasons for last year's inundation in Ram Nagar was that work on two big concrete culverts, meant to drain excess rain water from residential colonies in Madipakkam, Jalladampettai, Balaji Nagar, Moovarasanpet, Narayanapuram and Kovilambakkam into the Pallikarnai marshland, was incomplete. In fact, one of the culverts is still unfinished. "Last year, the ground floor of my apartment complex was flooded and my new car was completely under water. Senior Kancheepuram district administration officials visited our area and said steps would be taken to prevent inundation. But nothing much has improved," said Francis of Bazzar Main Road in Ram Nagar.

[prasanna]

Source

CHENNAI: The north-east monsoon, according to the meterological department, is scheduled to set in on October 20 but the Chennai Corporation is
still struggling to complete desilting of drains and minor waterways.

It has claimed to have cleaned up 17 km of the 29 km of minor waterways and 620 km of stormwater drains. About 315 km of drains need to be desilted in about 11-12 days.

Encroachments are proving a major hurdle. More than 2,000 families living in hutments on an embankment of the Mambalam canal, which runs between G N Chetty Road and Thyagaraya Road in T Nagar, have ensured that the contractor engaged for desilting works hasn't been able to complete it.

"We had to demolish a compound wall of a corporation-run school near G N Chetty Road and use a private school where the silt could be deposited before being taken to the dumping yards. At least 2,000 families have been identified as encroaching upon the canal. The government has to deciside on resettling them without which complete desilting is impossible," said an official closely associated with the work.

Even allottees of Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board land are hampering operations in Vysarpadi canal and Jawahar canal in North Chennai and in the Jafferkanpet canal and Raj Bhavan canal in South Chennai. The authorities depend on contract labourers to clear the clogged waterways manually. "We need to at least clear the floating plastic waste before the rains even if we are not able to remove the silt. Several of our staff are elderly people," officials said.

During the recent meet on monsoon-preparedness at the Ripon Buildings, Mayor M Subramanian urged proper coordination among the agencies concerned. The Public Works Department promised to remove encroachments from the Virugambakkam canal but little has been done despite several reminders to the PWD, sources said.

In K K Nagar, at least 140 dealers of scrap have encroached upon parts of the MGR Nagar canal, obstructing the flow of water and preventing desilting works. The Tamil Nadu Housing Board which allotted them a pice of land a few decades ago has washed its hands off the issue of eviction. "If this is done, KK Nagar could be free from floods this time," says V Gopalakrishnan of Fifth Pillar.

"We will complete desilting in a week. Inaccessible areas will be covered by labourers in boats," corporation commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni told TOI.

[kannan infratech]

[[B]QUOTE=Raji7373;44116632]Finally we are getting machines....death of poor scavengers can be avoided

Metrowater Has Ordered 175 Desilting Machines


We (a group of people connected to Metrowater & TWAD) have been brainstorming on this issue unofficially. The results are not very encouraging right now. But I see an opportunity for SSCians to raise to the occasion.

The Court has banned using manual scavengers from getting into the sewers - Good Move. But what is the alternative? Using Machines. But do these machines work efficiently? No. There are peculiar problems and unless the machines are designed specifically for this, they may not work.

What we can do till we find suitable machines? Stop Cleaning the sewers? It will be chaos. The majority opinion was to design a suitable dress / suit with face mask and oxygen pipe (connected to Oxygen cylinder). But will it be acccepted by the court? Nobody knows. The flipside is that this temporary solution may prevent a speedy decision on a permanent solution.

I suggested that this may be given as a project to IIT / Anna University students and they can be helped by us - SSCians. We have also approached some ex Metrowater / TWAD engineers who did some pioneering work.

I request SSCians help in this task

[kannan infratech]

Most of the city waterways are used as drains by the city including the concerned depts. Large scale encroachment has already taken place along the banks. Due to lack of clean running water, the cleaning process becomes difficult.

The first step should be to stop the intentional pollution.

The second step should be to provide alternative accomodation / disposal methods and and follow up with heavy punishment (like disconnecting power, cancelling ration card and the like).

The third one is to use sea water (which is available in abundance) to clean up the waterways initially and followed by rain water.

POLITICAL WILL IS NEEDED.

[Leo_r]

One needs to standardise the design of sewer wells and the pipeline take off point and diameters of wells, pipes first before mechanising the cleaning process. I remember to have seen a new construction during 1998-99 when TWAD implemented a major project across Chennai. The well was around 2 metre in Diameter ,10 metres deep and the Pipelines 24-30 Inches Dia, were placed 2 feet from the bottom of the well.

Here the design provides only under 2 feet for dirt accumulation and expect the agencies to clear out the muck before it gets filled and moves further down the pipeline. A truck mounted Grabber with a screw mechanism like the one used to grab earth or iron ore, coal etc should suffice to clean the well if done regularly. The grab shall open to well diameter ,scoop and contract to the manhole size before pulling out.

Now, we never do regular cleaning and the muck gets carried over to the pipeline. How to clean the pipe mechanically between two adjacent wells? That needs brain storming. In Oil and Gas Industry, an item called "PIG" is used to clean sludge,dirt etc. The process is called 'Pigging' and there is an elaborate system to launch and receive the "Pigs".It is possible there because of flow under pressure continuously.

We need circular and linear motion to scrub and push the dirt downstream. Our new Engg Guys instead of show casing tiny useless 'Robots', shall conceive a suitable 'PIG robot'. This project may be given to PSG,CIT or GCT. Engineers there are more practical and can come out with a product in quick time.

The ideal situation will be to increase the hold up capacity in the well and clean the well regularly with the scopping machines. And never divert storm water from the roads to drain to sewers.