Articles by News Desk

Mumbai is the most expensive city for expatriates According to Mercer’s 2022 Cost of Living survey, Mumbai has ranked 127 among the costliest cities in India in terms of living expenses and accommodation costs. The cities that followed were New Delhi (155), Chennai (177), Bengaluru (178), and Hyderabad (192).  The survey found that while the city is popular for multinational corporations to establish corporations, organisations are considering other, low-cost cities as alternatives. Mumbai, along with New Delhi, was found to have the highest cost of daily necessities such as milk, bread, vegetables, etc. Source: The Times of India As Mumbai expands, glaring…

Four metro water wokers die due to asphyxiation Four contract workers of Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) have died in two different incidents over the past week, allegedly due to asphyxiation while cleaning septic tanks. On Tuesday, two workers, Nelson and Ravikumar who were involved in cleaning a septic tank in Madhavaram asphyxiated while at work. While Nelson was declared dead on arrival, Ravikumar died on Thursday without responding to the treatment. Meanwhile, two other workers, identified as D Dhakshinamurthy, 38, and P Periasamy, 38, of Pallikaranai died allegedly of asphyxiation while cleaning a septic tank located…

BBMP ward delimitation draft out State government notified the draft of the BBMP ward delimitation report on Thursday. As per the draft, the number of BBMP wards will increase from 198 to 243. Ward boundaries have been redrawn based on the 2011 Census population numbers. As per the draft, out of 28 Assembly constituencies in Bengaluru, 17 now have higher ward numbers. Ward numbers have remained the same in eight other constituencies. Whereas three constituencies - Jayanagar, Shivajinagar and Chamarajpet, all ruled by the Congress party - now have fewer wards than earlier. Opposition MLAs called the exercise “gerrymandering” to…

Chennai to get 100 E-Buses As part of a German bank-funded project, Chennai will get 100 E-Buses in the coming months. The tender has been called for by the Institute of Road Transport (IRT) which is seeking automobile manufacturers who can supply the buses as well as the necessary charging infrastructure to the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC).  The buses will all be low-floor and air-conditioned. They will have a capacity of 36 passengers each. There will also be provision for wheelchair-bound passengers and a ramp for entry and exit. The transport department will expand the fleet of E-buses depending on…

Less rainfall in Mumbai as monsoon begins Monsoon touched Mumbai on June 11th this year, and yet, the city has reported unusually low rainfall. Otherwise typical this time of year are intense showers, followed by flooding in many parts. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) reported that as of June 23rd, the city’s rainfall deficit for the month so far stands at 47%. Experts attribute this to the absence of low-pressure systems in the Bay of Bengal and a ‘weak’ offshore trough in the Arabian Sea, close to the Konkan coast. “Ideally, 12 low-pressure systems are expected to form in the…

The handover process with all its financial, operational and technical aspects can be hard to nail down. Yet, it is the most pressing challenge as an association prepares to run the affairs of a community. Issues like late handover and defects within the apartment are common complaints of most individual apartment owners taking possession of their new property. At an association level, however, issues are even more complex and often ignored. The issues range from major defects, incomplete construction, lack of documentation, improper handover of maintenance corpus etc. In a new apartment, a freshly constituted Association’s Managing Committees (MC) may…

Onti Mane housing scheme to be restarted by BBMP Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai announced on June 15th that BBMP would restart the Onti Mane scheme, which aims to provide financial assistance to the poor to build a house, if they owned a site. This will be in conjunction with other urban development schemes such as Akrama Sakrama, which regularises revenue collection in pockets of the city where a large number of underprivileged people in Bengaluru live.  The Onti Mane scheme offers upto Rs 5 lakh to people belonging to the SC/ST/OBC and minority categories to build houses in their plots.…

Chennai Metro Phase 2 progress and accessibility promise The elevated metro line between Porur and Poonamalle as part of Phase 2 will have a total of 453 pillars. Of this, 111 pillars have already been erected as part of the progress on this line. The total cost of the elevated line is estimated to be Rs 1147 crore. The line is set to be open and operational from June 2023. This line will extend from Lighthouse to Poonamallee and is part of Corridor 3. The total length of all lines in Phase 2 is 118.9 km. The review is on…

Mahim Church in Mumbai aims to go carbon neutral within 2 years St. Michael Church in Mahim, one of Mumbai's oldest churches aims to go carbon neutral within the next two years, a decision in line with Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) Mumbai Climate Action Plan (MCAP). A greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory analysis was conducted to accurately assess how they can cut back on emissions.  According to environmental engineer Emmanuel D’Silva, Mahim church emitted a total of 44 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2eq) emissions in 2021, which can be taken as its annual baseline. “Not surprisingly, electricity consumption was the…

Lakhs of litres of water in Mumbai extracted without NOC According to documents obtained by groundwater activist Sureshkumar Dhoka, through RTI, major infrastructure and redevelopment projects in the city were extracting lakhs of litres of water daily without a No Objection Certificate (NOC). The documents outline that, until now, the Central Government Authority (CGWA) has not extended powers to any state agency to issue NOCs to well and tank owners and fine them in case of breach of law. As per guidelines to obtain a NOC for extraction of water, a well or tank owner must have ownership of about 200 square…