City: Mumbai

Municipal councillors in Mumbai are elected officials for a city’s municipal corporation. They play a critical role in the development and functioning of the city as the primary facilitator between citizens and the state government.   What does a councillor do within their constituency? Councillors in Mumbai execute various developmental procedures in their constituency through the Rs 1.5 crore per annum of local area development fund granted to their local ward by the Brihanmumbai Mumbai Corporation (BMC). A further Rs 60 lakhs of discretionary funds are allocated to every councillor to be spent on their constituency for work they deem as…

The 6th report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), titled, 'IPCC 6th Assessment Report Working Group II (AR6)' was released globally on February 28th. Analysing environments of 195 member countries, the report has, this year, revealed that the global climate crisis is possibly much worse than we had thought. It states clearly that around 40% of the world's population is "highly vulnerable" to climate change. The IPCC report refers to Mumbai multiple times and says the city has new challenges ahead as it grapples with coastal degradation and temperature changes. Climate impact on the urban poor Mumbai is…

Higher Secondary Certificate exams begin offline in Maharashtra For the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, a state board exam will be conducted offline. Higher secondary Certificate (HSC) exams were cancelled last year due to pandemic restrictions in the second wave. With over 14 lakh students in the state, out of which 3 Lakh are in Mumbai, HSC exams are now being conducted offline in all colleges. While the state board will conduct exams on the entire syllabus, other boards like CBSE and CICSE have conducted semester exams on 50% of the syllabus. Their second semester exams…

Urban planning experts and allied interests have for long grappled with exactly how much open space Mumbai needs, and what more can be done to improve Mumbai’s natural environment. Given the likely impacts of climate change, especially in the context of the latest IPCC report warning the city of climate change catastrophes, urban planning in Mumbai appears to have reached a critical point of inquiry.  Extensive research already outlines Mumbai’s open space deficit as an outcome of administrative disputes, land availability, acquisition financing, lack of holistic policy implementation, and other reasons across social, economic and environmental aspects. While the search…

Mumbai is the most stressful city to drive in globally, according to a study by Hiyacar, a UK based car sharing company. It is also ranked 5th in global vehicular congestion by the TomTom traffic index of 2021, a global traffic index. Not surprisingly, traffic congestion, road rage incidents and the stress of commuting long distances to work is adversely affecting the physical and mental health of drivers. Additionally, the state of the city’s roads, poorly built, burdened by pothole and unsafe dividers has led to a 15% increase in road accidents in the first six months of 2021. Deaths…

The Deonar dumping ground has mountains of garbage, some reaching 18 floors high, having accumulated 18.35 million tonnes and counting. Years have passed since the government agreed to close the facility, Mumbai's oldest. Its most recent deadline, 2023, is fast approaching. But it seems this time the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) might just make the deadline, by switching to a waste-to-energy (WTE) plant. Construction for the Rs 504 crore plant will begin in a month and a half, seven years after it was first announced. Just one clearance, from the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), remains. Spread over 12 of…

Decision on shutting down COVID jumbo centres likely by next week The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will decide on whether Covid jumbo centres in Mumbai should be dismantled, by next week. With COVID-19 cases reducing to between 200 and 100, a few centres like the ones at Dahisar, Goregaon, Malad, Sion and Kanjurmarg might be shut, but centres at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), Byculla (Richardson and Cruddas) and Worli (NSCI) will continue to function. “The daily occupancy in many of these centres has been in a single-digit since the past few days. While we will ensure that we are prepared…

On January 8th, a voice note on WhatsApp groups of civic organisations was making rounds in the areas of Borivali and Kandivali. Recorded by an unidentified woman, she claimed that her mother, who lives alone, was duped out of money by a man posing as a Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL) agent. On 6th January, he arrived at her home on the pretext of checking the gas meter. On inspection, he allegedly found gas leakages and warned her of a possible fire. She was told that fixing the leakages would cost her Rs 1850 per valve, and in total, she was…

Izzat ka Pani depicts the struggle of Abrar Salmani, resident of Bhim Nagar, Mankhurd, one of at least 62 informal settlements in Mumbai that are denied legal water access and have no piped water supply. This film describes Salmani’s decade-long journey to access his Right to Water, a prerequisite to the Right to Life, guaranteed by the Constitution of India. Through this journey, we take a glimpse into the lives of Mumbai’s urban poor, the political and systemic injustice they face when trying to access water and sanitation, as well as the on-going efforts of citizen collectives to reform this…

The history of water transport in Mumbai dates back to the Seven Islands of Bombay, which were under Portuguese possession. In 1661, they were handed over to the British, and between 1820 and 1857, the islands slowly became what was then known as Bombay. It was with the opening of the 'Overland Route', a transportation route that made it possible to travel to Europe, that Mumbai built its first steamer in about 1830. The route cut travel time down from five months to one and a half. By 1850, Bombay came into being. Trade between Europe and India was expanding, with the…