Harbours bond closer
Almost 14% work on the ambitious Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) has been completed and second phase of this 22-km long bridge over the sea connecting the two harbours in Mumbai’s eastern face has begun, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority announced recently. The bridge is being built in three packages. While 15% work on first package, that comprises a 10.4 km bridge, is complete, the second package of 7.8 km and the third package of 3.8 km bridge are 12% and 11% complete respectively, the agency said.
Reward for potholes yet to reach citizens
The Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) last week launched a scheme to reward citizen of this megapolis with Rs 500 if they reported a pothole of at least one foot in length and three inches deep and it is not repaired within a day’s time after reporting it on the specially designed mobile app.
The scheme was an instant hit and over a thousand complaints were received on the app. Of these over 800 were immediately fixed, the authorities said. But, over 200 citizens who had reported potholes that were not fixed are still awaiting their reward of Rs 500.
Mushtaq Ansari of ‘Pothole Warriors’ — an NGO, had lodged several complaints under the BMC’s scheme. However, some of the potholes were not fixed due to lack of men and material, he said.
Win for clean air
The Union government has finally cleared the pollution control action plan for Mumbai after it was rectified three times. According to directives from the NGT in a case of 2018, as many as 17 polluted cities in the state were asked to submit their action plans to control pollution.
While all the plans were submitted in April, three of them were rejected owing to certain inadequacies. The plan for Mumbai had to be revised thrice.
But the plan for the next three years is ready and it involves deploying road cleaning machines, electric crematoriums, coordination of traffic signals etc.
2nd airport on track
While much needed second international airport for Mumbai is being developed in the twin city of Navi Mumbai, issue of rehabilitation of five villages had held up the work for a long time. However, now the issue is almost resolved and work on first runway will begin in a fortnight, authorities said.
A total of 2,268 hectares of land was acquired for the first greenfield international airport of which 1,160 hectare is to be used for the terminal and the runways.
The work to rehabilitate five villages, cutting down of a hillock, diversion of Ulwe river and shifting of high tension power lines, have been completed and the project can now be fast-tracked, authorities have said.
Abhijit Mulye
Our correspondent in Maharashtra
abhijit.mulye@gmail.com