Cruise tourism hub
Mumbai is rapidly gaining fame as a cruise tourism hub. In the past four years, there has been a 78% rise in cruise traffic in India. According to the Mumbai Port Trust, from 128 cruise callings in 2015-16 that catered to 1.25 lakh passengers, India’s five major ports are now looking at 593 cruise callings in 2019-20, catering to 4.18 lakh passengers. In Mumbai, 40 cruise ships catered to 37,820 passengers in 2015-16 and the number has now increased to 259 cruise ships catering to 1.8 lakh passengers. The other major ports are Chennai, Cochin, New Mangalore and Mormugoa. Monday turned out to be a unique day as six cruise liners with over 4,000 passengers aboard were at the Mumbai port. It is the first time when around 6,000 passengers transited through the port in a day.
The city has a heart of gold
While there are forgetful Mumbaikars, as lost and found data from the railways shows, there are others who care for others and Mumbaikars are grateful for such gentle souls. Last week, a young pharma management professional from Thane had written about her experience on social media. A few years ago, she had just joined a new job and would commute by local train. It was almost the end of the monsoon season and she had forgotten her umbrella in the train. She assumed that she had lost it. However, a few days later when she got on to a train a lady approached her and asked her about her destination station. When she named the station, the lady took out the umbrella from her bag and gave it to the girl. “I still go speechless when I think of that moment. I mean who does it? How is it that this fast-paced city has so much heart! This is just one such example that has happened to me. God bless our Mumbai and our country,” she wrote.
Refusing reward for spotting potholes
The BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation had come up with a reward scheme for citizens who point out potholes, which the administration couldn’t fix within 24 hours. While Prathamesh Chavan, a Dadar resident got `5,000 reward for pointing out such potholes, there were at least 36 others who refused to accept the reward amount and said that they participated in the scheme to point out the attitude of the contractors and officials. Rather than getting a reward, they preferred that the municipal authorities fixed these unattended potholes.
Forgetful Mumbaikars
Within just 10 months between January and October 2019, 1,687 commuters on the Western line of suburban local services have forgotten valuables worth `3.61 crore while travelling by train. The data was revealed by the Western Railways as these owners of valuables were traced and the items returned to them last week. Most of these things were forgotten on the racks during morning peak hour rush. Of the 1,687 railway commuters, only 876 registered complaints, railways data has revealed, while officials said over 43 such valuable items are still lying unclaimed at the railways’ headquarters and their collective value is around `2.2 crore.