The draft Smart City plan for Tiruchi is expected to be readied by November 20 and would be presented before the stakeholders for another round of discussion soon after.

Ministry of Environment and Forests guidelines stipulate that mining in quarries with lease area of 5-25 hectares should be done only manually.

Will be valid for a period of five years

The State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) has granted environment clearance for 11 more sand quarries in the Cauvery-Coleroon river basin. A few days ago, the SEIAA had granted clearance for 10 new sand quarries in Tiruchi, Karur, Ariyalur, Nagapattinam, Thanjavur and Namakkal districts. In the second batch of clearance, 11 quarries have been approved, sources told The Hindu on Friday.

Four years after the 2004 tsunami, a look at the reconstruction and rehabilitation work that has been carried out.

Permanent houses for tsunami victims built by the Development Promotion Group (DPG), a Chennai-based NGO, at Vanavanmahadevi village in Nagapattinam district.