As many as 172 roads in the new areas of Chennai Corporation will be taken up for integrated redevelopment. Stormwater drains, pavements, streetlights and ducts for electrical cables would be provided besides re-laying of the roads under the project. The new initiative would cover 112 km of roads in the …
CHENNAI: The Nagapattinam Port in Tamil Nadu would be upgraded as an all-weather, deep-water green field port, at a cost of Rs 380 crore, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today announced. "In the first year of its operations after upgradation, the port can handle 10 lakh tonnes of cargo which will yield …
The Deputy Chief Minister, Tara Chand on Tuesday convened a meeting of senior officers to review the pace of progress of various schemes launched by the Municipal Corporation here today. He said mega development projects have been launched in the capital cities to upgrade urban infrastructure, adding that prestigious projects …
The Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) would soon undertake a survey for preparing a detailed project report (DPR) to make the chief minister's dream project~ beautification of banks along the river Hooghly~ successful. The state urban development minister, Mr Firhad Hakim, today held a meeting with the mayor and officials …
It was once described as the most British corner of Buenos Aires and frequented by writers such as Graham Greene and Jorge Luis Borges. The grand old Cafe Richmond in the Argentine capital is being replaced by a Nike shop. “The Richmond was the only place you could get a …
MUMBAIKARS won’t see any more sea links, at least for now. After the successful run of the five-kilometre road over the sea, linking Bandra to Worli in South Mumbai, the Maharashtra government was planning its extension to Haji Ali via another sea link. But now that plan has been shelved. …
The overpowering stench of municipal waste hits one hard on entering Boragaon. Women and children from the nearby squatter’s colony squabble over the garbage unloaded by trucks from Guwahati, the sprawling business hub of northeastern India and a million-plus city of Assam. A sole adjutant stork, an endangered bird, meditates …
PROMOTERS of Lavasa, India’s first planned hill station, have agreed to accept the pre-conditions imposed by the Union environment ministry over which the project’s clearance was stuck. The ministry had reprimanded Lavasa Corporation Limited for violating environmental laws at the project site near Pune in Maharashtra. In a volte-face, the …
Guwahati, the sprawling million plus city of north eastern India has grown at the cost of vital wetlands. While the rich legally bought the water-bodies, the poor ‘illegally’ encroached on them. With major storm water basins in the city disappearing, every monsoon, Guwahati reels under flashfloods. The June 22 police …
THE Maharashtra government seems to be dragging its feet over imposing sanctions on the developers of the country’s first planned hill city. The Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) had sent a letter to the state environment ministry on June 10 directing it to take action against Lavasa for …
AN ESTIMATED 410 million Indians live in the cities. Their lifestyle is seen as an improvement over life in rural areas, be it in terms of job security, stable future or better access to sanitation and medical help. But cities have their ills—higher incidence of violence, never-ceasing noise, increasingly unclean …
More than half of the world’s population now lives in cities, making the creation of a healthy urban environment a major policy priority. Cities have both health risks and benefits, but mental health is negatively affected: mood and anxiety disorders are more prevalent in city dwellers and the incidence of …
Google has agreed to amend its map of the Brazillian city of Rio de Janeiro after the country’s media and city officials slammed it for giving prominence to favelas or shantytowns. When viewed in large format, the map pinpoints several of Rio’s more than 600 favelas. It does not label …
The Bombay High Court has overruled a decision by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests to allow Lavasa Corporation Limited to complete the 257 underconstruction buildings at its hill station project near Pune. In its March 30 judgement, the court ordered maintaining status quo on the project till its …
Lavasa is a destination for the well-heeled, upwardly mobile, aspiring for quality life. The streets bear names like Thicket and Celosia (an ornamental plant); the village that the town replaces—Dasve—has become the Dasve boulevard. The town centre boasts a town hall that does not resemble any municipal office but a …
Lavasa is called a hill station but does not offer the cool comfort of one. In May and June temperatures touch nearly 40°C— not an ideal summer getaway. In nearby Mahabaleshwar, temperatures rarely cross 35°C. Then what prompted the city’s developer, Lavasa Corporation Limited (LCL), to promote it as a …
India’s maiden planned hill city that made news for bending rules and undertaking unauthorised construction may get the Centre’s nod, after all. The buzz is the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) may give conditional clearance to Lavasa, which is being developed in the Western Ghats, 65 km from …
In 2009, the world’s urban population outstripped rural population for the first time. This demographic landmark has drawn mixed reactions from thinkers, policy makers and activists. Some believe more people living in cities means new environmental challenges, while others fear lesser hands for agriculture will put more pressure on the …
NEW DELHI: As it struggles to get a grip on its finances in the post-Commonwealth Games scenario, the Delhi government on Monday got a Central grant of Rs 1257.86 crore in the Budget. Up from last year's Rs 1080.51 crore, this year's grant sets aside Rs 500 crore for infrastructure …
The Bombay High Court has given Lavasa Corporation Ltd six weeks' time to submit documents demanded by the Union ministry of environment and forests. Lavasa has time till March 10 to pacify the ministry, which had ordered the corporation to stop work on November 25 last year saying the township …
