City Buzz: Mumbai-Goa expressway | Bengal civic polls deferred | Water contamination in Ludhiana…and more

Predictably, it has been the COVID-19 pandemic that has been on top of everyone's minds this week. But here are some other important news that you may have missed.

Predictably, our cities have been preoccupied with little other than the health emergency created by the novel coronavirus pandemic. Please see our complete coverage of  COVID-19 for daily updates, reportage and information resources pertaining to the outbreak.

Meanwhile, here are some other urban news this week:

Four-lane express-way to come up between Mumbai And Goa

A 500-km long expressway along the lines of Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway will be built between Mumbai to Goa as announced by Maharashtra Public Works Department Minister Eknath Shinde. The expressway will open up tourism opportunities in the Konkan region and will also generate jobs, he added.

ICRA has pointed out that 90% of hybrid annuity road projects are witnessing execution delays because of land acquisition and tight liquidity, whereas the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said that the direct transfers have speeded up the land notification process as around 37,078 hectares of land has been notified in 21 months since 1 April 2018 against 33,005 hectares in the previous four years.

Source: The Hindu Business Line

Water in Malwa region of Punjab not suitable for drinking

A study conducted by Central University Punjab at Bathinda pointed out that the chemical contamination of groundwater in Bathinda, Ludhiana and Barnala is posing great health risk to people residing there. A total of 450 samples were collected from these three districts during pre-monsoon and post-monsoon season and it was found that 80% of samples from Bathinda had fluoride content exceeding WHO Limit, whereas around 50% of samples of Ludhiana had higher fluoride concentration.

Moreover, 85%, 75% and 10% samples from Bathinda, Barnala and Ludhiana respectively were found to exceed the  uranium concentration as per norms. The study shows that the groundwater in these three Malwa districts is not fit for drinking due to reasons like less rainfall, high evaporation rate and alkaline environment.

Source: The Times of India

Coronavirus outbreak: Bengal civic polls deferred

Civic polls in more than 100 civic bodies in West Bengal have been deferred by the State Election Commission in an all-party meeting held to avoid political campaigns at present, preventing the spread of COVID-19. Both Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) had appealed to SEC to defer the polls. “In fighting this pandemic, political parties must stand shoulder to shoulder with the people we represent,” TMC said in its statement. On Sunday BJP’s national president J P Nadda issued instructions to suspend all other activities and conduct public awareness programmes on the novel coronavirus.

Source: Hindustan Times

New air quality monitors installed in NCR region

Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) has installed 5 new air quality monitors in Gurugram and Faridabad. Gurugram has got two new air quality monitors, one at The Energy Research Institute (TERI) and the other in sector 51. Faridabad also received three new air quality monitors in sector 11, sector 30 and at VK Chowk in the New Industrial Township area.

Both Faridabad and Gurugram now have four air quality screens, every information from which will be utilized while computing their daily air quality index (AQI) values. Data from all are being transmitted to the Central Pollution Control Board’s central server.

Source: Hindustan Times

New guidelines issued on bio-medical waste by CPCB

Amidst the growing cases of Coronavirus, CPCB has come out with guidelines on handling the bio-medical waste being generated from the isolation wards, clinics, hospitals and other health care units handling COVID-19 cases. The guidelines were officially notified on March 18 2020 and will be applicable to all the state and central isolation wards, quarantine centers, sample collection centers and labs dealing with COVID-19 pandemic. The additional guidelines issued by CPCB talk about proper segregation of the bio-medical waste as per the color codes enshrined under the Bio-medical Waste Management Rules 2016.

Source: CPCB

[Compiled by Rishabh Shrivastava]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Similar Story

Mumbai Buzz: Two die in a manhole accident | Metro 3 trials begin and more…

Other news in Mumbai: Two children suffocate to death in abandoned car; Bombay HC rap for demolishing galas; Leopard captured at Vasai.

Two die, third critical after falling into manhole Mumbai continues to see tragic accidents related to manual scavenging and deadly manholes. Two people died and a third is critical after falling into a 30-foot-deep manhole in Malad. The manhole was connected to a drain pipe on the site of a private under-construction building at Pimpripada in Malad east. Raju, who was a worker at the site, fell in and after that two nearby residents, Aqib and Javed jumped to save him. When none of them came out, the locals called the fire brigade to rescue them. According to the preliminary…

Similar Story

Chennai Buzz: RTE admissions begin | Anna Nagar to get new parking system… and more!

In other news from Chennai: GCC urges residents to pay property tax; Government plans to denotify a part of Pulicat bird sanctuary

TN government's plans to denotify a portion of Pulicat Bird Sanctuary raise concerns Thirteen revenue villages were included within Pulicat Bird Sanctuary boundary limits in 1980. The state government has now begun rationalising its boundaries raising concerns over the shrinking of the sanctuary’s eco-sensitive zone (ESZ). According to a news report, a proposal for the use of 215.83 hectares of non-forest land for the development of an industrial park inside the ESZ, and 5 km from the bird sanctuary was discussed during the 77th meeting of the Standing Committee of National Board for Wildlife held in January 2024. With the…