The Times Of India - Chennai, 10/19/2019 Cropped page Page: 5

THE TIMES OF INDIA, CHENNAI SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2019 5TIMES CITY

Chennai: A 35-year-old woman and her male ac-complice robbed a woman of her gold jewelleryweiging four sovereigns in Mangadu on the pre-text of giving her a job as a domestic help. Boththe accused are on the run.

Police said Lavanya of KamakshiammanNagar in Mangadu, alleged that a man from herlocality, identified as Shakthivel, approachedher with a job offer. Shakthivel introduced awoman as his wife and told Lavanya that they

needed her help to look after their daughter inBengaluru. They took her to Mangadu andasked her to wait there for a while. The duo re-

turned and sprinkled a chemical on her face. La-vanya regained consciousness after an hourand found that her gold chain was missing.Based on her complaint, the Poonamallee po-lice have launched an investigation.

Duo robs woman of gold chain in Mangadu

Chennai: The Chief Minis-ter‘s Office has asked theGreater Chennai corpora-tion (GCC) if every zone canbe kept as clean as the fewareas that were when PrimeMinister Narendra Modiand Chinese President XiJinping visited the city re-cently.

GCC commissioner GPrakash posed this ques-tion to officials during a re-view meeting held earlierthis week, sources said. Pra-kash asked the field officerswhat could be the plan tomake every zone litter freeand maintain them so thatthe entire city would look asclean as it did during the In-dia-China informal sum-mit.

Sources said ground-lev-el officers proposed to takeup the challenge ward-by-ward and implement it forone zone at a time, graduallyextending it across the city.

CMO query:Can city be asclean as forMo-Xi visit?

Chennai: The Greater Chen-nai Corporation (GCC) is con-fident that the long-pendingskywalk project connectingMambalam railway stationand T Nagar bus terminuswill come to fruition by theend of this year.

Conceived four years ago,the project took shape lastyear after the civic body pre-pared a detailed report. Ten-ders have been issued thriceso far this year, but have notbeen awarded yet.

Bids were invited fromcontractors for the fourthtime recently.

“The project will definite-ly happen. Last time, threebidders took part. Since thewhole process is online, therewas a lacuna in the docu-ments they submitted. We re-jected the bids and issuedfresh tenders. We are sure wewill have a successful bidderthis time,” said an officialwith the bridges departmentof GCC.

Once the tender is award-ed, the successful bidder willget 15 months to complete theproject, estimated at `̀26.27

crore. Funds for the projectwould be drawn from the coff-ers of Chennai Smart CityLimited.

The skywalk would facili-tate passengers to reach thebus terminus and railwaystation by avoiding crowdedUsman Road and Ranganath-an Street.

The structure will alignwith the Railway BorderRoad and Madley Road.

Around 50,000 people use

Ranganathan Street and Rail-way Border Road everyday toenter and exit the railway sta-tion. During festival seasons,the footfalls rise to 1.5 lakh,according to an official withGCC’s Zone 10 (Kodambak-kam). After the project wasannounced, around 22 en-croachments were identifiedlast year and vendors on Rail-way Border Road abuttingthe station’s compound wallwere evicted to facilitate con-

struction of the skywalk.According to GCC offi-

cials, the skywalk will mea-sure 600m in length and 4m inwidth and will have three en-try/exit points.

Its design will also focuson providing easy access tosenior citizens and personswith disabilities.

“There will be ramps andtactile strips to help the vi-sually challenged… the sky-walk will be fitted with pull-out ladders for escape in caseof emergencies,” an officialsaid.

While the project itselfhas been caught in a bureau-cratic quagmire since its in-ception in 2015, residents of TNagar and regular commu-ters were unsure if the pro-ject will be a success story.

“The main problem for pe-destrians in T Nagar is en-croachments by vendors.Without clearing them,what’s the point in building anew skywalk? In fact, it willnot be a surprise if vendorsencroach the skywalk likethe foot-overbridges in rail-way stations,” said B SivaPrakash, a resident ofT Nagar.

Would Help Commuters Avoid Crowded Usman Road

Mambalam skywalk projectcould take shape by year-end

ELEVATED LINK: If constructed, the skywalk project would link TNagar bus terminus with Mambalam railway station

File photoTIMES NEWS NETWORK

An under-construction wall of aprivate building in Mad-

urantakam collapsed due to rainkilling two construction workers.The deceased were identified asVenkatesan and Sakkarai. Otherworkers, who were also involved inbuilding the wall, also were injuredin the collapse and were rushed tothe Chengelpet GovernmentHospital for treatment. A case has

been registered.

Class X student run over byschool van: AClass X studentwas run over by a private schoolvan in Tiruttani on Friday. Policesaid the victim was Azaruddin, 15,a resident of Muslim Nagar. Hewas a student in a governmentschool in Tiruttani. Azaruddin wasriding pillion with his friend on hisbike when a school van rear-endedthe bike. In the impact, Azaruddinfell and came under the frontwheels of the van.

Gold, cash seized at cityairport: Customs officials onThursday seized 2.6kg of gold,worth ̀̀ 1crore, and $10,000 frompassengers at the airport. Mo-hamed Azarudeen, 24, and Im-thiyas, 21, of Ramanathapuram,and Azarutheen, 24, and AbdulKalam Asath, 23, of Pudukkottai,who arrived in a Sri Lankan Airlinesflight, and Mohammed ImranKhan, 30, of Chennai, MohamedMansur Ali, 30, and Khan Mo-hamed, 41, of Ramanathapuram,who arrived from Singapore andDubai, were intercepted. Onquestioning they admitted tohaving concealed gold in theirrectum. On extraction, a total of2kg of gold worth ̀̀ 80lakh wasrecovered. One of the passengerswas arrested. Mohamed Refay-deen, 22, of Pudukottai, andMohamed Ibrahim, 70, of Cudda-lore, who arrived in an EmiratesAirlines flight and an Indigo flightfrom Dubai and Colombo, respec-tively, were intercepted. Officialssearched them and found 65gramsof gold bits concealed in theirpockets and five bundles of gold inrubbery spread in their rectums.On extraction, 678gram of goldworth ̀̀ 27lakh was recovered.

NEWS DIGEST

SMART POLICING: Commissioner of police A K Viswanathan (L) withpolicemen wearing smart jackets and body cameras in T Nagar on Friday.He launched 500 more cameras to keep an eye on the Diwali crowds

2 workers killedin wall collapse

R Ramesh Shankar

Chennai: This Diwali could beamong the greenest. Peoplenow have the option of buyingseed ‘fireworks’ made of clay,which when buried in the soil orthrown in the air to fall to theground will germinate andgrow into various native treespecies. Each ‘cracker’, pricedat just ̀̀ 2, is shaped like normalrockets, flower pots, chakka-rams and ‘Lakshmi vedi’,among others.

Horticulture director NSubbaiyan told TOI that theidea to create and sell seedcrackers germinated in the de-partment last week. “Immedi-ately, the seed crackers werecreated. These model crackerswere embedded with seeds ofhalf a dozen species of nativetrees,” he said.

Native seeds include that ofneem, poovarasu, banyan, pun-gan, peepal and silk cotton. Theidea of the seed cracker is tomake people understand theneed for planting native speciesof trees. The department isplanning to sell about 5,000 suchseed crackers. It takes only fiveminutes to create them and it ismanually done now. “The de-partment is keeping moulds of

different types of crackersready. In case the demand rises,the moulds will be used for cre-ating seed crackers,” he said.

With Diwali just a weekaway, it was decided to sell thesecrackers in the department’sMadhavaram nursery, Sem-mozhi Poonga, the head officepremises on Wallajah road andTiruvanmiyur sales depot, Sub-baiyan said.

Instead of cursing pollutiondue to bursting of crackers, itwas decided to use the opportu-nity to sell the cracker like seedballs, which will help in reduc-ing pollution levels in the city.“One cannot expect the resultsto be instant. If the seed crack-ers are sown this Diwali, bynext year they will help in re-ducing pollution levels, wherev-er they are sown,” Subbaiyanadded.

This Diwali, light the greenfuse with clay seed crackers

Chennai: The new air-conditionedgovernment bus, scheduled to ply be-tween Chennai and Sathyamanga-lam in Erode district, will have moreseats.

So far, all new State ExpressTransportCorporation(SETC) bus-es have 2x2seating ar-rangement.However,

the new vehi-cles for Tamil

Nadu State Transport Corporation(TNSTC), Coimbatore, will have 3x2seating arrangement.

Asource said three such A/C bus-es have been provided to TNSTC,Coimbatore. “Of these, one will plyfrom Sathyamangalam to Chennaidaily and the other two will be operat-ed from Coimbatore to Rameswaramas demand among tourists has shotup,” the source added.

Fares are yet to be finalised for theservice expected to hit the roads inNovember. TNN

New govt AC busto Erode town tohave more seats

Chennai: The Chennai zon-al unit of the Directorate ofRevenue Intelligence (DRI)has seized 1.37 lakh psycho-tropic tablets and potency-increasing drugs whichwere about to be smuggled tothe US by air.

DRI sources said they re-ceived a specific tip-offabout the smuggling bid.The drugs were being smug-gled in the guise of herbalmedicaments and wellnessproducts.

On Tuesday night,sleuths of DRI, Chennai, in-tercepted nine consign-ments at a courier office inthe city.

On finding that the con-signment contained psycho-tropic substances prohibit-ed under the NDPS Act, theofficers seized it.

Immediate follow upsearches carried out at themastermind’s address in thecity and on the premises of acourier franchisee throughwhom the consignmentswere booked and routed, re-sulted in the seizure of largequantities of psychotropictablets and potency-increas-ing drugs at different stagesof export.

The substances seizedincluded alprazolam, diaze-pam, hydrocodone, nitraze-pam, phentermine, zolpi-dem and oxycodone (all psy-chotropic substances) aswell as dubious cocktails oftadalafil and sildenafil (via-gra and cialis). A total of 1.37lakh tablets were seized. Thedrugs were being shippedfor illicit use in the US.

Three people, includingthe mastermind of the syn-dicate, have been detained.

DRI seizes 1 lakhpsychotropic tabletsfrom courier office

ECO FRIENDLY: Each clay seedcracker costs just `̀2

TOI

Chennai:At least seven waterbowls have been kept in gov-ernment railway police (GRP)stations in Chennai Central,Egmore, Tambaram, Koruk-kupet, Chengalpattu and Tiru-vallur railway stations to helpbirds, dogs and squirrelsquench their thirst.

C Sylendra Babu, directorgeneral of police, GRP, saidteenager Sai Ganesh, an avidanimal welfare activist, ap-proached him for permissionto keep the water bowls at theGRP stations. “Considering hisinterest in helping the animalsand after going through hisprofile, we agreed to keep thebowls,” he said. Sai Vigneshsaid on many occasions, ani-mals, especially stray dogs,were killed or were severely in-jured during summer in rail-way stations when they go insearch of water under the com-partments. To avoid this, it wasdecided to keep bowls of wateron the premises, he said.

At Central, two bowls havebeen provided.

Now, animals,birds won’tgo thirsty at

these rly stnsOppili.P@timesgroup.com

Chennai: Burglars struck attwo houses in Red Hills andAmbattur on Thursday nightand escaped with 17 sover-eigns and `̀1lakh. Thenraj, 35,a software engineer in HongKong, owns a house on Selva-vinayagar Second Street inRed Hills. He came to Chennaion vacation and temporarilyrented a house in Kolathur.When he went to check hishouse on Thursday, he found15 sovereigns kept there mis-sing. In Ambattur, Rajaram,47, who had gone to his work-place returned on Thursdaynight. He found the almirah inhis house broken open andtwo sovereigns and `̀1lakhmissing. TNN

Gold, cashburgled

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Oppili.P@timesgroup.com

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

CHEATED WITH ‘JOB OFFER’

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AN EVENING OF DANCE, MUSICAND CHENNA I 9S CHANCE-EY lILA

GOLU CONTEST WINNERS

RUKMINIVIJAYAKUMARBhara thana tvan i VIDHA LAL

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C.u-riatic Cuiiccrt byDR. S. SOWMYA

YAMINI REDDYKuchi pudi

Navratri marks the beginning of festivities every year. The Times of India invites you to a mesmerizingevening of dance performances by Rukmini Vijayakumar, Yamini Reddy and Vidha Lal themed as Tridevi ,

followed by a Carnatic Concert by Dr. S. Sowmya. The event will concludewith the felicitation of the Chance-ey illa Golu contest winners.

19' October, 5:30 pm onwardsat Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, T. Nagar, Chennai.

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