City: Mumbai

The St. Peter's Seaside Cemetery, Kadeshwari Marg, near Mount Mary’s Steps, was established more than a century ago, around 1906. It serves a sizeable population of Catholics, concentrated in Bandra. It is an active cemetery and large numbers of Catholics have their graves here. About 50 burials take place every year. On 2nd January 2023, the Joint Municipal Commissioner – Zone III, served a 7-day Notice on St. Peter’s Church, under Sec 299 of the MMC Act 1888, intimating the take-over of a section of our cemetery for road-widening of 9.15 meters, including about 10 graves and the compound wall.…

Three years ago Shoaib (24) followed Aisha (21, name changed) on Instagram, she followed him back. He was from Nasik and she lived in Ghatkopar. Each was curious about the other, the attraction soon turned into a conversation and then many conversations. Unafraid of losing him, Aisha revealed a crucial detail at the very beginning of what would become a life-long commitment between the two—she had tuberculosis (TB). Six months after this, when Shoiab told his family about his intention to marry Aisha, it was only expected that her health condition would cause concerns. "I said, 'So what if she…

On December 15th, 2022, around 15 students at the Banegar English High School in Mira Road were in for a rude shock. Denied permission to attend class as on a normal day, they were made to sit apart in a spare classroom with broken desks and benches. The reason: their parents had been unable to pay their school fees, and this was their punishment. "They switched off the fan and made them sit in the storeroom for the entire day. No teacher came to check on them, nor were they let out at recess," says Swaleha, mother to seventh grader…

In 2019, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) buses were on their deathbed. Once known for buses that never broke down, it was going through a particularly rough phase. Daily ridership had halved in the previous decade, down from 42 lakh to 25 lakh. Higher ticket fares, discontinuation of the AC Super Routes, rising competition and a workers’ strike in January meant it was losing crores by the month. Things took a turn for the better in the latter half, when the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) promised monthly financial aid of Rs 100 crore to tide them over. But…

India's first double-decker electric bus on the streets of Mumbai India's first air-conditioned double-decker electric bus was opened for public use on February 21st. It is one of 200 buses that Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) has leased from Switch Mobility, a subsidiary of Ashok Leyland. The bus operated on route number 115, running between CSMT and Nariman Point in South Mumbai at 8:45 am on Tuesday. Despite an overwhelming response from the public on its first day, news reports suggest that the bus schedule did not meet commuters' expectations. The bus was non-operational in the afternoon, and it…

Just breathe. Take a deep breath and let your body and mind relax. Easy enough to say but a difficult thing to do for a Mumbai resident. Given the severe lack of public open spaces (POS) or, to put it differently, spaces to breathe.  The first day of 2023 saw record crowds flocking to the city’s Zoo and the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), as the city lacks enough healthy options for family outings. The Mumbai Zoo was so overflowing with over 33,000 visitors that at one point during the day, it closed its gates and refused to take in…

You've probably seen the Ulhas river on your escape from the city, as it flows through Mumbai’s favourite holiday haunt in Khandala valley in interior Karjat. But there is a lot more to the river, which originates in the Sahyadri hill ranges of Raigad district to the south of Mumbai. It is fed by multiple small rivers, rivulets, and streams and then flows through Neral, Badlapur, Ambernath, Ulhasnagar, and Kalyan. Before joining the Arabian sea, it splits at Balkum, one going to Vasai creek and the other to Thane creek. The river supplies drinking water to 45 lakh people in…

Dalit student's death: Family says he faced harassment at IIT-Bombay The family of an 18-year-old Dalit student at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, who reportedly died by suicide earlier this week, told NDTV that he had faced caste discrimination on the campus. The first-year student hailed from Ahmedabad and was enrolled in the Bachelors in Technology (Chemical) course at the institution in Mumbai. The institute had earlier said that “discrimination by students, if at all it occurs, is an exception”. However, the institute said that it had carried out two surveys, in 2022, across its campus, to record various forms…

Four persons lost their lives in 2022 in accidents caused primarily due to poor maintenance of lifts in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). About 25 instances of malfunctioning of lifts were reported. Around one lakh lifts are installed across the MMR and apart from the serious accidents. Elevators have become a crucial part of the housing infrastructure with buildings registering large-scale vertical growth to cater to the huge housing demand. Even the slum redevelopment buildings, that are being built, have 40-70 floors, which pose a different set of challenges. Despite the regulations, lift accidents are far too common. Pic: Adam…

On January 4, a lift accident at Vikhroli claimed the life of a 20-year-old labourer of a 25-story building at Vikhroli, when the lift crashed from the 21st floor. Two persons died when the cord of their lift trolley snapped from the 15th floor at a Worli tower on January 9. Three months ago, a 5-year-old child, Mohammed Huzifa Shaikh lost his life on November 28, 2022 when he got stuck between the wooden door and the grill door between the fourth and the fifth floor of his Dharavi building. Another child, 16-year-old girl Reshma Khairavi, lost her life, when…