Infrastructure Stories
Assam Floods: Engineering A Solution
Overflowing Brahmaputra is not a disaster, but poor planning, ageing infra, and shrinking drainage make it one. Predictive infra management, rather than periodic repair, is the solution
A farm city learns the language of 50 storeys
Nashik’s fast-changing skyline, driven by Kumbh-linked spending and looser rules, shows what happens when a mid-sized city starts taking on metropolitan form faster than its roads, drainage, transport and planning can keep up
Train to Kathmandu: Is India set to beat China in Nepal rail race?
The Raxaul-Kathmandu railway project has gathered pace even as China’s ambitious plan for a trans-Himalayan railway linking Kerung in Tibet with Nepal’s capital faces technical and financial challenges
- Jayanta Kalita
- TIMESOFINDIA.COM
Which is India’s biggest city? Depends where you draw line
By Development Data Lab's measure, using population, built-up area, and night lights to identify urban footprint, Delhi is the largest, while Chennai and Bengaluru switch places, depending on the boundary used
Nuclear plant data breach: Why does Kudankulam have a $112-million terrorism insurance policy?
A leaked insurance document highlights how nuclear plants prepare for extreme risks, even as the government says Kudankulam’s reactors remain secure
- Bhavika Jain
- TIMESOFINDIA.COM
Can Vizag really become India’s AI capital?
Google’s $15bn hub is only the start of a 6GW data-centre rush promising jobs and global connectivity — but demanding land, power and water
Not just nostalgia value: Why Kolkata wants its trams back
Once dismissed as slow and obsolete, trams are returning globally as clean urban transport. India’s last surviving network now has a second chance
India’s next big reform is where we live
Jobs, exports, talent and investment increasingly depend on urban India. Three reforms can turn cities from growth constraints into productive assets
Brahmaputra mega dam: Not just India, China’s own experts now call it a ‘ticking water bomb’
New research by Chinese geologists highlights the region’s seismic vulnerability and the risks of dam breaches and landslides, challenging Beijing’s earlier safety assurances
- Jayanta Kalita
- TIMESOFINDIA.COM
The footpath warriors fighting for our right to walk
Recognising safe sidewalks as a fundamental right, SC validated years of work by civic campaigners auditing and reclaiming pavements for pedestrians
- Sneha Bhura
- TNN
Mumbai’s seaside garden – its biggest ever – is taking shape. Here’s all you need to know
Spread over 130 acres – that is equal to five Shivaji Parks or six Oval Maidans – the Coastal Road Gardens will have tennis and pickleball courts, an aviary, cricket and football turfs, an amphitheatre and lots more. Here’s a first look
Members only: A guide to India's most elite clubs
The Government of India has upped the ante on Delhi Gymkhana, asking the Centre’s estate officer to expedite the club’s eviction. Is this the end of the road? Whatever happens, the stories of India’s most sought after watering holes get even more fascinating
- TNN
How can 1,300 people die of heat in one of the richest places on earth?
Parisians are checking into hotel rooms just to sleep. In Britain, the heat is shutting down MRI scanners and cancer-treatment machines. And in Switzerland, towns opened air-conditioned cinemas for free because people needed somewhere cool to sit. Why is it so bad? There are 4 reasons
- Team TOI Plus
- TIMESOFINDIA.COM
'Death chambers': Why coaching centre tragedies keep repeating
As investigations into the Lucknow building fire that killed 15 people continue, a familiar question returns: why do the same safety failures keep claiming young lives across India's education hubs?
- Team TOI Plus
- TIMESOFINDIA.COM
What is the Great Nicobar remake — and what’s at stake?
Should an island of 9,000-odd people become a city of 6.5 lakh? That is the scale of change planned under the project. Promise is strategic and economic gain; fear is permanent damage to its ecology and indigenous communities
- Doreen Bora
- TNN
Blueprint City loses the plot
As plans emerge for the city’s tidier, greener triplet, its twin appears to be falling apart — its playgrounds auctioned, its taps running dry, its nights without power, even as it becomes the engine room of India's AI boom.
- Anindita Paul
- TIMESOFINDIA.COM
How you could soon go from Mumbai to Pune in 48 mins, Delhi to Siliguri in 6 hrs
Railways is planning a 16 lakh crore high-speed network to connect major cities and transform long-distance travel. But timelines are yet to be decided
How & why the South took command of India’s skies
Never mind superbusy Delhi and Mumbai airports, southern India beats northern and western regions on every aviation metric. A more even spread of growth centres across states in the South, and its early successes in airport-building are among reasons why Indian aviation league table has been flipped
- Manju V
- TNN
One Fire In Capital, Three Lessons For India
Delhi B&B tragedy shows why safe density, proportionate fire compliance, and continuous inspection matter more than ritual NOCs – a lesson every Indian city needs to learn
Can Pune’s ‘Pataal Lok’ project solve its traffic problems?
The second biggest city in Maharashtra has traffic snarls that are among the worst in the country. City authorities believe a series of tunnels is the solution
- Bhavika Jain
- TIMESOFINDIA.COM