City: Mumbai

Restrictions relaxed for Mumbai Maharashtra's government approved easing of curbs in 25 of 36 districts on July 29th. This includes reopening malls and multiplexes at 50% capacity, extending hours for restaurants and shops till 8 PM. Non-essential shops and dining out will now be allowed till 4 PM on Saturdays. The government will also relax the limit for gatherings at social and cultural events. All restrictions will continue to apply on Sundays until further notice. While malls and cinemas will be able to recover financial losses, no decision has been taken on allowing non-essential Mumbaikars on local trains to commute…

For the first time in the history of Mumbai, the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking is facing a huge shortage of buses. Once considered the pride of Mumbai and Asia’s best bus service, and often compared with London, it is now in poor shape. BEST bus passenger figures Back in 2004-05, BEST had 3,400 buses in its fleet and carried 45 lakh passengers every day. Priority was given to feeder routes catering to the nearest railway station, and long distance routes were fewer. Things went downhill from 2010, when the first fare hike happened. Subsequent fare hikes in…

Though the Union government claims that the Model Tenancy Act 2021 is meant to unlock more empty houses, many property owners in Mumbai are unsure.  Friction between the tenant and the landlord often result in long-drawn out legal battles. The new law is meant to govern the tenant-landlord equation through effective and faster dispute resolution.  Property owners fear legal disputes if tenants do not vacate their property on time. “....expensive legal costs deter landlords from giving their properties on rent in the first place. The risk of property litigations in cases of conflicts is a major deterrent which has made…

It's snake time of the year! Flower pots, piles of garden leaves, rubble heaps and discarded pipes are a few of the places where snakes feel safe. During the rainy season, they leave their often water-logged hideouts to get some warmth in the sun, which is why we're more likely to see them in our urban habitats at this time. We often see the staff of Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC) working in areas where snakes are known to be found, and this was something that had been bothering us for a while. Whether sweeping the streets, or clearing the weeds…

Rivers breach banks Several rivers that run through the Mumbai Metropolitan Region have breached their banks due to extreme heavy rains. Areas in and around Kalyan, Badlapur, Ambernath, Ulhasnagar, and Bhiwandi are majorly flooded with immense risk to daily life and people. Around 5000 people from these areas were evacuated to safety sites in schools and community halls. Jagbudi and Kodvali rivers in Ratnagiri also crossed their assigned danger marks which led to heavy flooding of the Mumbai-Pune expressway. Low-lying areas like Vasai, Virar, and Nalasopara were ill-equipped to deal with subsequent waterlogging. Fire officials moved residents in informal housing…

On 18 July, Renita D’Souza and her family woke up with neck deep water in their house at Hanuman Nagar slum along the storm water drains. They found themselves surrounded by houses laced with dirt. “Our house was full of muck and we had to wade through a foot-deep grime throughout the day and there was no water to either drink or clean up," she said.  The electricity supply to their house was disconnected as a precautionary measure. The entire neighbourhood could not light gas stoves. “We had to ask our children to buy vada pav because we couldn’t even…

The deadline for the “Housing for All by 2022” Mission is a few months away, but we have some way to go. I would like to draw public attention to a very critical subject - the land at Rifle Range Santa Cruz (CTS 12), Mumbai 400029 / 400055. It may not be critical for everybody but it definitely is for those residing on the land. Defence land, Golibar The land belongs to Air Force Station Mumbai, Ministry of Defence, Government of India as per the property card and records held by the Office of Defence Estate Officer, Mumbai. The said…

The union cabinet approval of the new Model Tenancy Act on 2 June is causing unease among the 2.5 million tenants in Mumbai, especially those who have rented flats under the Pagdi system.   A pagdi system is a legal tenancy system that flourished in the 1940s in which tenants are part owners and the tenancy can be sold after sharing a part of the proceeds with the landlord. Unlike a regular rental property, where a tenant pays a deposit while moving in, in a Pagdi system, the tenant pays 60-75% of the market price to the property owner and…

Permanent road closure in south Mumbai The traffic police has announced to "All vehicular traffic plying from Eastern Freeway's down ramp and MbPT Road via Wadala going towards P D'Mello Road as well as all vehicular traffic plying from Wadi Bunder Junction, P D'Mello Road, going towards Wadala via MbPT Road under the Freeway at Orange Gate Junction is permanently closed". The closure comes as a consequence of construction and development that Mumbai Port is undertaking on Marina Bay. In the notification issued on July 8, Pravinkumar Padwal, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) said that to prevent any danger, acting…

NatConnect Foundation aims to protect and conserve the environment in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Citizen Matters spoke to NatConnet director B N Kumar, who is also a media veteran.  What are major environmental issues facing Mumbai's coastal areas. How will these impact Mumbai’s biodiversity? For long, authorities have been unconcerned and apathetic about Mumbai's ecology. It has become customary and almost an annual event for the people to suffer floods and city shutdown. But the deluge of 2006, somehow, made people realise that the destruction of mangroves has also contributed to the disaster. Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the ever-extending and…