City: Mumbai

Mumbai should aspire to host the Olympics games in 2036, and working towards being Olympics ready will ensure Mumbai gets good infrastructure by creating jobs and helping the local economy. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been selecting a different city to host the Olympic games every four years since the first modern games were held in Athens in 1896. India should compete for the bid and nominate Mumbai as the host for the Olympics games 2036. The crucial chance to make that happen will be in 2023 when the IOC meets in Mumbai. I am a volunteer for Mumbai March, an…

Section 144 in force from Nov 1st to 15th in Mumbai The Mumbai Police has issued several prohibitory orders, including Section 144, for the city between November 1st and 15th. As per the orders, gatherings of five or more people, processions, protests, loud speakers, bands, firecrackers, etc have been banned. Exhibiting or publishing any material leading to danger, governmental or moral trouble is also outlawed. The display and possession of weapons, arms and ammunition is also banned under a separate order from November 3rd to December 2nd. The restrictions are in response to information about the disturbance of peace, law…

The 10.58 km-long coastal road project has faced opposition from environmentalists, urban planners and fisher communities ever since the construction first began in 2018. The road, being built on the promise of effectively reducing city traffic, runs from Princess Street at Marine Drive to the Worli end of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link. This under-construction part of the project is under the umbrella of the larger plan that stretches up to 29 km and connects Marine Drive to Kandivali. On October 7th, 120 architectural firms under the banner of Mumbai Architect Collective (MAC) wrote a letter to Ashwini Bhide, Additional Municipal…

The usual suspects blamed for plastic pollution are littering, slums and a dysfunctional garbage collection system. But contrary to popular belief, even when waste makes it to landfills, it's not all that secure. Pollution from landfills accounts for 45% of the plastic - a whopping 4.1 million metric tonnes in 2015 - lost in the environment.  Mumbai's landfills are terrible offenders. A recent study, titled 'Risk of plastics losses to the environment from Indian landfills', and published in the Elsevier Journal Resources, Conservation and Recycling assessed the risk of plastic pollution posed by landfills in 496 urban Indian cities.  Mumbai topped the charts.…

On September 23 2022, a seven-year-old boy was killed when the battery of the Electric Vehicle (EV), which his father had kept for charging, exploded on him at their Vasai residence. While this unfortunate incident led to the loss of an innocent life, electric vehicle fires have been regularly reported in newspapers raising concerns about EV safety. Exact figures of EV vehicles (cars and bikes) catching fire or their batteries exploding are not available for Mumbai. Earlier, fire in a Tata Nexon EV at Vasai on June 23, 2022 had prompted the Union government to issue notices to all EV…

Mumbai's suburban railway network, also known as the ‘local train’, is famous across the country for its robust network. While it connects the entire city, its expansion has also added pressure to existing infrastructure. Overcrowded trains and station platforms are a common sight, especially at busy stations like Dadar, Kurla and Thane. Trains on average carry 2.6 times more than the official capacity carrying 7.5 million passengers every day. When it comes to railway station infrastructure, safety, hygiene and accessibility become paramount for women and children who use trains regularly. Railway toilets form an important part of this infrastructure. Read more: Mumbai’s…

Mumbai at a severe risk of plastic pollution A new study led by a researcher at Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur) concludes that out of the total 496 cities in India, Mumbai is at more ‘severe risk’ of plastic pollution from landfills. The peer-reviewed study—‘Risk of plastics losses to the environment from Indian landfills'—states that the danger of pollution is high because of factors like wind, rain and floods, which leads to Mumbai’s waste dumps being “leaky”. Other ‘severe’ risk level cities included Kolkata and Chennai, and followed by Delhi. The study also notes that the COVID-19 pandemic increased plastic…

The festival season is almost synonymous with the sale season. It's an excuse to splurge, buy and gift. Advertisements and discounts attract us to many such offers and our shopping carts, virtual and otherwise overflow with binge buys. But this rampant consumerism in festivals is incredibly damaging to our environment, increasing the burden on our resources, and adding to the mounting levels of waste and pollution. With Diwali around the corner, Citizen Matters was joined by two enthusiastic and spirited environmentalists for a panel discussion held on Instagram live, titled 'Conscious consumers: Celebrating in a sustainable and responsible way' on October…

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) began the demolition of illegal structures inside the 800-year-old Mahim fort on October 13th to begin restoration work. However, not all of the 267 families are happy about the decision of the civic body to rehabilitate them to Malad or Kurla. Many believe leaving the G/North ward, under which Mahim fort falls, would deprive them of their livelihoods and make access to schools difficult for their children. 38-year-old Samir Sheikh, who has been living in the area all his life, points at a demolished house inside the Mahim fort and says his family lived there…

The monsoon in Mumbai is nearing its end, and it's time to take stock of the season. The rainfall received in the city has just about crossed the expected average, at 101.45% in Colaba, and 106.26% in Santacruz.  The seasonal rainfall received by the city - between June and September - was 2,093.8 mm in Colaba and 2,658.3 mm in Santacruz. The seasonal average normal of Mumbai is 2,317 mm. But the rain did not stop there; October witnessed more rainfall in 24 hours than the 89 mm expected of it in the whole month. Till October 16th, the rain recorded in Colaba increased to…