Chennai’s bus operator Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) has a staggering 504 driver vacancies, 75 conductor vacancies and 246 technical positions unfilled as of May 2023, while the oldest bus in the fleet is an ancient 17.4 years, data obtained under the Right to Information Act shows....
Whether smaller cities like Madurai and Coimbatore need costly Metro rail systems is a widely discussed theme, and the critiques start to bite when the pattern of underinvestment in existing ‘low capacity’ systems such as buses, mini-buses and smaller vehicles shows little effort to get it...
Chennai Mayor R. Priya’s week-long trip from Saturday to Spain, France and Italy with a focus on best practices for Solid Waste Management (SWM) should be a welcome development as she would see how countries in the European Union (EU) are faring on targets for reuse and recycling of Municipal...
Sometime in 2023, India is expected to be formally declared the world’s most populous country, overtaking China. This certain development underscored by the UN report on World Population Prospects 2022 holds high significance for India, given the varied experiences it has had with the uneven...
The horrific three-train pile-up involving the Coromandel Express that has led to hundreds of deaths and thousands injured has led experts to spotlight delays in railways implementing the accident prevention system called Kavach. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways in the Lok Sabha...
Chennai’s Semmozhi Poonga, which experiences fluctuating fortunes based on who is in power at Fort St. George is all set to host a short three-day flower show from June 3. To prepare the park for the event, funds have flowed in for beautification, including laying of granite walkways. Also in...
With just a week to go for the originally scheduled reopening of schools in Tamil Nadu on June 1, the State has decided to heed the warnings on oppressive summer temperatures and postponed the date to June 7. Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi had earlier said the schools would reopen as...
Strange as it may seem, the bustling traffic on Arcot Road, a State Highway feeding into Porur, has been redirected since May 6 via densely populated residential neighbourhoods in Kodambakkam and K.K. Nagar, among other places, to facilitate work on the 118 km Phase II of the Chennai Metro....
All the eastern coastal states are bracing themselves for the fallout of a weather system, dubbed Cyclone Mocha, which is slowly making its way north in the Bay of Bengal. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday said a well marked low pressure area already in the South Andaman sea...
Something is better than nothing, the Madras High Court noted, and ordered the Tamil Nadu government to procure 499 low-floor buses suitable for use by people with disabilities in cities and suburbs. With its order of April 18, the Madras High Court has for now brought to a close the prolonged...
