Even as civic administration and other city agencies are planning major infrastructure projects, this will cost the city almost 500 trees in the process.

According to the data provided by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) Tree Authority, permission to cut 493 trees was sought by various agencies including the BMC, MMRDA and MUTP since January 2012 for major infrastructure projects. Of the 1,297 trees that are obstructing these development projects, the civic administration has given permission to chop 111 trees and transplant 382.

Merely calling nuclear energy safe and essential will not suffice at a time when even urban pockets do not have access to healthcare made possible through nuclear technology, said Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Sekhar Basu.

Speaking to The Indian Express hours after taking charge on Tuesday, Basu said that there is a need to show people the social face of nuclear energy. He took over from outgoing director R K Sinha, who was recently appointed as the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.

To compensate any adverse impact of the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) on the ecology along the alignment, the development agency in charge will implement a list of measures, including construction of a flamingo park, a mangrove park and environment education centres.

A Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) official said the agency would implement all the measures suggested by the consultants with the help of local non-governmental organisations. The agency will spend Rs 200-300 crore to monitor and improve the ecology of the mudflats, water quality, air quality, noise pollution and solid waste management.

India hopes to clinch later this year a deal with France for multiple nuclear energy units at Jaitapur in Maharashtra to produce 9,900 MW of power.

"Negotiations are going on and are progressing well. We hope to seal the deal later this year," official sources said referring to the proposed pact involving six nuclear power units of 1,650 MW each. "We have not yet achieved the financial closure for the deal," the sources said. The technology for the power plants is proposed by French energy major Areva which has already entered into pacts with state-run Nuclear

The human mind is brilliant, and enterprising. First we build dams and drown vast stretches of wilderness under reservoirs.

A committee appointed by the state government to study certain aspects of the ambitious rental housing scheme has recommended the introduction of affordable housing in special townships in areas outside the limits of municipal councils.

The committee, comprising the metropolitan commissioner, principal secretaries of housing and urban development, last week submitted a report to the state government at the behest of Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan.

Despite global slowdown, US manufacturing giant General Electric (GE) announced that its new manufacturing facility in Pune would develop localized products and solutions for the energy sector in its first phase of operation commencing in 2013.

The Government of Maharashtra and GE signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The new manufacturing facility would spread over a total area of 68 acres. GE will invest a cumulative amount of Rs 1100 crore in building this large scale facility - GE’s first such manufacturing site in India. It will hire over 2000 employees for this facility.

Maharashtra is one of the highest users of tobacco in the country with 43 per cent adult males and 19 per cent adult females addicted to it.

The findings were published in the Global Adult Tobacco Survey in Maharashtra released here on Friday. According to the survey, the average age of daily initiation to tobacco is17.9 years in adult males and 21 years in adult females.

Mumbai Tata Power has put on hold all new imported-coal-based projects, its chief financial officer said, warning that it would be a challenge for the company to meet its target of a five fold increase in generating capacity by 2017.

The country’s power generators have been slow to add much-needed capacity due to fuel shortages, delayed regulatory clearances and debt-crippled distribution utilities buying less power.

The Mumbai Police has written a strongly worded letter to the state government, complaining that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been dragging its feet on allowing the police to prosecute those booked for illegal construction under the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning (MRTP) Act.

Sources said with over 200 MRTP Act cases registered over the past year-and-a-half still pending with the Mumbai Police, they have demanded that the BMC be directed to promptly take a decision on approvals for prosecution.