City: Mumbai

A popular quote by WH Auden says, "Thousands have lived without love, not one without water." I am deeply convinced that it is true, especially in present times, where the planned urban cities are facing acute water shortage on a regular basis, along with rural and remote areas. One of them is Dombivli. Dombivli, with its rapidly expanding population and insufficient infrastructure, has been grappling with water scarcity for years. I live in an integrated smart city with more than 100 residential buildings built near Dombivli. Currently almost 2,00,000 citizens reside in more than a 1000 flats. Facilities such as…

As India gets ready to vote to decide who will represent them in Parliament, Citizen Matters is speaking to elected Parliamentary representatives from Mumbai. We will ask them about the work they have done for the city, policies they have supported and why Mumbaikars should cast votes in their favour (or of their political parties). As part of this series, we spoke to Gajanan Kirtikar, who represented Mumbai North West for the past two terms. He is an active Parliamentarian who was one of top 10 MPs who asked the maximum number of questions during their tenure, according to a report…

Name: Gajanan Kirtikar  Constituency: Mumbai North West Gajanan Kirtikar, 80 is an old hand in Maharashtra politics and has risen up the ranks of his party. He has always been with the Shiv Sena, having been part of the core team of Bal Thackeray, subsequently working under Uddhav Thackeray. He chose to move to the Shiv Sena faction led by present chief minister Eknath Shinde.  He served as a legislator for four terms between 1990 to 2009 and then entered the Parliament for two terms from 2014. He also served as the minister of state for home and tourism and…

Bhushan Gagrani replaces Iqbal Singh Chahal as BMC Commissioner On Monday, the Election Commission of India (ECI) asked the Maharashtra Chief Secretary to immediately transfer the Commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, Iqbal Singh Chahal. Besides this, it also asked for the transfer of all Additional Municipal Commissioners and Deputy Municipal Commissioners, who have been in their current posting for over three years and are posted in their home district in Maharashtra. Soon after taking charge from Iqbal Singh Chahal, new BMC Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani addressed a meeting for monsoon preparedness. Pic: BMC via Twitter (X) On Wednesday, the ECI…

As India gets ready to vote to decide who will represent them in Parliament, Citizen Matters is speaking to elected Parliamentary representatives from Mumbai. We will ask them about the work they have done for the city, policies have they supported and why Mumbaikars should cast votes in their favour (or of their political parties). As part of this series, we spoke to Gopal Shetty, who represented Mumbai North for the past two terms. Shetty has now been replaced by Piyush Goyal by his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who will be seeking votes based on the work done by…

Name: Gopal Chinayya Shetty Constituency: Mumbai North Member of Parliament, Gopal Chinayya Shetty, 69 has been representing the area that falls under Mumbai North constituency in various capacities. First, he worked as a local corporator for three terms since 1992 and later, went on to become Mumbai’s deputy mayor. After that he rose to the state assembly from the Maharashtra legislative assembly from 2004 to 2014.  Since then, Shetty has been representing the Mumbai North constituency for two Parliamentary terms. In 2014, Shetty defeated Congress’ Sanjay Nirupam by polling in 70.1% of the voteshare by getting 6,64,004 votes as against…

New names for eight suburban railway stations The state government has given its in-principle go ahead for the renaming of eight suburban railway stations in Mumbai. Shiv Sena MP Rahul Shewale said that after the decision is ratified by the state cabinet, the proposal will be sent to the Union government. Curry Road station will be called Lalbaug, Sandhurst Road will be renamed Dongri,  Marine Lines as Mumbadevi, Charni Road will be called Girgaon, Cotton Green station is set to be renamed Kalachowki, Dockyard is to be called Mazgaon, King’s Circle as Tirthankar Parswanath, and Mumbai Central as Nana Jagannath…

A month after the BMC announced its budget for the fiscal year 2024-25, experts called for greater citizen participation in the planning and implementation of the budget. Not only is the BMC the richest civic body in the country, but also this year they have announced the highest budget ever at nearly Rs. 60,000 crore. Secondly, elections have not taken place after the term of the previous elected officials ended in March 2022. The Municipal Commissioner, appointed as the administrator, has been at the helm of the civic body's functioning for two years now. The corporation was put under an administrator…

Devendra Fadnavis, the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra recently launched the Mumbai Metropolis  Metaverse, an immersive virtual representation of the way Mumbai will look by the year 2025. This metaverse includes twelve infrastructure projects, which is said will transform Mumbai. One of these projects is the Mumbai Metro. Citizen Matters looks at existing Metro Lines, their connections with Central and Western suburban railways and the prominent areas/stations they connect. Which are the three lines currently operational in Mumbai? Blue Line or Line 1 On 8th June, 2014 the first metro line was started in Mumbai. It was dubbed the Blue…

Pod taxis to run in BKC Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA)  has recently given the go-ahead to introduce a pod taxi service between Bandra and Kurla. The route will go via the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) and will be 8.8 km long. A pod taxi is a driverless vehicle, which can accommodate five to six people. The pods are suspended 8 to 10 metres over the ground from an overhead rail. Their movement is powered by electricity. They descend at designated stops to let the passengers out and take in new ones. The taxis will stop at 38 stops…