Mumbai: At the tiny Kutarpada Eksar village in Dahisar, 76-year-old Gayatribai Shinde inches towards a well with a bucket on her head and a pot in her hand. It takes her half-anhour to reach her destination and more than an hour to return, when she balances the two vessels filled with water to the brim.

The BMC is pulling out all the stops to ensure that beaches in the city are clean.

The civic body will spend a little more than Rs 7 crore over the next five years to spruce up three major beaches

MISTAKEN IDENTITY
The Centre has once again cleared the 141 hectares of land at Kanjurmarg for a dumping ground, lifting the forest tag that was mistakenly given to that plot. However, it will be a while before the BMC can use the place to dump debris as the state is yet to give the nod.

Congestion pricing is not a new concept, but over the years it has proved to be a successful model in cities like Singapore and London. Here

Officials And Experts Say City

CONTRACTOR BLAMED

SMALL ENGINES MAKE BIG NOISE
The city has been breathing a lot easier ever since a majority of auto-rickshaws plying the road changed to CNG a couple of years ago. But a recent BMC study shows that there has been little respite from noise pollution caused by three-wheeler cargo carriers and passenger auto-rickshaws.

At least 18 people have been killed in different parts of Maharashtra in rain-related incidents as heavy rains lashed the state on Thursday, police said. Four people were struck by lightning in Kolara and Bhorsabhorsi villages in Buldana district of eastern Maharashtra. In Aurangabad, three people were crushed to death and another three injured when a wall collapsed due to heavy rains in the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) complex. Earlier, in Mumbai, a minor boy was killed when a wall fell on him in Chembur, a northeastern suburb, police said.

The Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) has suggested the Maharashtra government to extend the proposed metro line from Ghatkopar to Andheri to it's international terminal. MIAL, the private organisation managing the city's airport, has suggested the idea to the state government at a national facilitation meeting recently. "MIAL has asked for the extended metro link to both the terminals of the airport. The state government will discuss the matter and then take decision on it," Secretary (Special Projects) Sanjay Ubale said.

"We survived the deluge of 2005 but are still worried about this year." The fear, voiced by many citizens, is an apt comment on how ill-prepared the civic administration is to deal with the rains. With just weeks to go before the onset of the monsoon, contractors appointed by the BMC to clean the nullahs (drains) have completed barely 20% of the work. Although the civic administration had fixed a deadline of May 31, it has now been forced to extend it to June 8. The contract to clean the nullahs is worth Rs 72 crore and work has been spread out over two years.