The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (mmrda) is rushing ahead with its multi-crore metro rail and monorail projects. But its proposal to build the less expensive Bus Rapid Transit System (brts) has been delayed. Reason: the development authority, charged with planning for Mumbai, transferred the project to the municipality in February last week.
Until five years ago very few people in Mumbai were aware of the Mithi river running through it. Then, in the monsoon of 2005 it flooded, drowning 500 people. With the devastation it erupted into public consciousness, dark and stinking. Ever since the authorities have been trying to revive it. Their latest experiment is putting it on oxygen.
Government ignored report on unsafe mining operations Four stone quarries, operating illegally in Thane, were closed by the district administration in August following orders of the Bombay High Court. The court has also sought details on all mines operating in the district and on the outskirts of Mumbai.
BARC to help deal with waste The Bombay high court on July 21 set up a four-member committee to look into the feasibility of decentralized waste management in Mumbai. The court passed the order on a petition by the Smoke Affected Residents Forum, formed by Chembur residents, affected by pollution from the Deonar dumping ground in Mumbai
Mumbai municipality to induce rains; activists call it a sham torrential rains pounded Mumbai in the last week of June, but failed to help the city tide over the severe water shortage. The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai is now making frantic efforts to ease the crisis. On July 15, its standing committee decided to induce artificial rains through cloud seeding. As per
It provides the oldest skeletal evidence of leprosy a museum in Pune has a collection of thousands of bones and skeletons excavated in India. Among them is a 4,000 year old skeleton of a man believed to be 37 years when he died. This skeleton was found buried at Balathal, about 40 km north-east of Udaipur in Rajasthan. What sets it apart from other skeletons at the museum of the
Villagers suffer the city
Mumbai municipality readies norms for wastewater from kitchens future housing projects in Mumbai would need to have grey water recycling plants to treat wastewater from kitchen, washing clothes and bathing. The treated water is to be used for horticulture and other non-drinking purposes. The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai drafted guidelines that would mandate developers to install
Deliver at home with trained midwives and avoid caesarean section A belly dancer, tarot-card readers and yoga therapists, people not associated with childbirth, tea med up with midwives, masseurs and hypnotists at a mela in Mumbai last month to teach 60 women how to give birth naturally. Birth India, a non-profit established in 2007 to address the increasing number of caesarean
Maharashtra plans industries in its tourist spots The Maharashtra government has invited companies to set up industries in a district, which it declared eco-sensitive 12 years ago. On January 2, the government passed a resolution allowing thermal power plants, renewable energy projects, mining and stone crushers in the coastal district of Sindhudurg. The district with its backwaters,
