Kattupalli currently has approval for constructing five berths with total quay length of 1,900 metres, according to the original master plan. CHENNAI: A three-member Central team is carrying out an
The State Government will be taking over the Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve Trust from January 1, 2013. The Trust is a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) project initiated in the year 2000
In May this year, Masilamani (41), a resident of a housing board colony bang opposite the Kodungiyur dumpyard, woke up with violent coughs and breathlessness. A visit to the doctor later in the day confirmed
A study conducted by a Chennai-based environmental group has shown high levels of heavy metal-laden dust in air samples taken from around the Kodungaiyur dumpyard, exposing residents around the area to acute health hazards. The samples were taken from the house of Perambur MLA A Soundararajan in February 2012 and were sent to a lab in the United States for analysis. Addressing a press conference on Saturday, A Soundararajan said the Respirable Particulate Matter (RPM) in the sample taken was two times in excess of the standards set by the Central Pollution Control Board. A second sample collected from another house during a fire at the dumpyard showed the RPM levels three times higher than prescribed norms.
One recurrent complaint that emerged during a recent public hearing of the NCPCR was the poor state of infrastructure in schools and hostels in the hinterland. A study of about 50 panchayat schools brought out by People’s Watch in 10 districts served as a sample. Activists deposed that majority of the schools lacked basic amenities, such as a proper building. Drinking water facilities were non-existent in several institutions. Some of the schools, the study stated, had one toilet for 300 students. This rendered the facility unusable owing to lack of maintenance, thereby influencing enrollment.
The vulnerability of buildings designed before Chennai was classified under ‘seismic zone III’ should be reassessed, says an expert. Speaking on the sidelines of a conference on affordable housing, former
Members of the Congress’s Chennai districts held a demonstration in support of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant on Thursday. They played the electricity card, raising questions over whether the protestors
After loading fuel in all 163 fuel assemblies at Unit-I of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP), scientists on Tuesday launched the criticality process — jargon for generating energy — which is its main activity. Mark the symbolism in the choice of dates: while fuel loading began on Ganesh Chaturthi Day, the process of splitting ‘atoms for peace’ commenced on Gandhi Jayanti Day.
The Madras High Court dismissed two writ petitions from the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) seeking to quash the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (CERC) amendments seeking to ensure grid discipline. In its writ petitions, TANGEDCO submitted that by the impugned amendments dated March 5, the CERC had narrowed down the operating frequency of electricity supply (grid frequency) by 0.2 Hertz in the grid code and changed the Unscheduled Interchange (UI) charges.
Adyar Creek’s gain is Foreshore Estate’s loss in this green move that seems to have gone terribly wrong. The Public Works Department is now dumping construction debris, ordered to be removed by the National Green Tribunal from the Adyar Creek estuary, in Foreshore Estate, on the beach near Srinivasapuram. Truckloads of debris from the creek is now being dumped on the beach to level it so that the Ganesha idols could be immersed, said a contractor, who has been given the licence to clear the debris from the estuary.
More than a year has gone since the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) felled over 60,000 trees along the National Highway 46 for six-laning of the road, but it has failed to take up the restoration of the green cover till date. The lethargic attitude of the NHAI to take up the sapling plantation has left the district administration and forest department, which gave permission to cut down the trees for the project, red- faced. Clearly stating the High Court order in writ petition number 7811/10 and also the GO Ms 704, issued on August 8, 2010, the forest department insisted that the Project Director of NHAI, Krishnagiri, should plant 10 saplings for every tree felled.
