A BMC health worker collects swab sample of an outstation passenger for Covid-19 test, at Dadar railway station in Mumbai Jan 15, 2022. (PTI)Mumbai on Monday recorded 73 new Covid-19 cases, taking its tally to over 10,56,472, while the death toll remained unchanged at 16,691. Maharashtra on the other hand had 407 new cases, and 4 fatalities. The Omicron tally in Maharashtra stands at 4,629, of which 4,456 patients have recovered.
An Air India evacuation flight bringing the second batch of Indians staying in Ukraine from Romania will land in Mumbai on Tuesday morning. The flight which took off from Chhatrapati Shivaji airport on Monday will tentatively arrive around 6 am tomorrow. Union Minister Narayan Rane will receive the returnees.
Meanwhile, no deaths or injuries were reported after a level- 2 fire broke out Monday at a building in NG Royal Park area of Kanjurmarg in Mumbai. The blaze was confined to the ninth and tenth floor of the building and has now been extinguished. Around 10 fire tenders were rushed to the spot for rescue operations.
Mumbai on Monday reported 73 COVID-19 cases, taking its tally to 10,56,472, while the death toll remained unchanged at 16,691, a civic official said. He said 66 of the 73 cases recorded during the day were asymptomatic.
The recovery of 95 people took the number of people discharged so far to 10,36,086, which is 98 per cent of the caseload, leaving the city with 815 active cases, he added. With 12,014 samples being examined in the last 24 hours, the number of tests in the metropolis went up to 1,61,83,906, the official said.
Maharashtra on Monday reported 407 fresh COVID-19 cases and four fatalities due to the infection, taking the tally to 78,65,707 and the toll to 1,43,701, an official said. On Sunday, the state had recorded 782 cases and two fatalities.
The Omicron tally in Maharashtra now stands at 4,629, of which 4,456 patients have already been discharged, he added. "Until now, 9,382 samples have been sent for genome sequencing. Of these, results of 8,333 patients have been received, while 1,049 results are awaited," he informed.
The Maharashtra government on Monday appointed Manukumar Srivastava as chief secretary of the state as Debashish Chakrabarty retired. Srivastava is the senior most officer in the state.
Srivastava will retire in April 2023 and is presently the additional chief secretary of the home department. He was to chief secretary after S J Kunte retired on November 30, but the state government decided to make Debashish Chakrabarty the chief secretary who had a short tenure of just three months.
An Air India evacuation flight bringing the second batch of Indians staying in Ukraine from Romania will land in Mumbai on Tuesday morning. The flight which took off from Chhatrapati Shivaji airport on Monday will tentatively arrive around 6 am tomorrow. Union Minister Narayan Rane will receive the returnees.
Vice Admiral Ajendra Bahadur Singh on Monday inaugurated the Dock Master’s Complex (DMC) at Naval Dockyard in Mumbai. The DMC is at the centre for control of operations of the Aircraft Carrier Dock (ACD) with SCADA (Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition System) controls.
Rajya Sabha MP Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati, a descendent of Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj on Monday ended his fast on the demand for reservation for the Maratha community. This comes after he got assurance from the state governement on his charter of demanded related to Maratha reservation and other welfare schemes.
The home minister Dilip Walse Patil, urban department minister Eknath Shinde and medical education minister Amit Deshmukh offered the juice to Sambhajiraje.
A 5-year-old boy died and three people were injured after a portion of a balcony of a shopping centre collapsed in Kurla West area of Mumbai on Monday afternoon, an official said.
The incident took place on Ram Manohar Lohia Marg at a ground-plus one structure, he said. "A portion of a balcony fell on a canteen below. Afan Khan (5) was declare dead on arrival at a nearby hospital, while Rafique Sheikh (46), Irfan Khan (33) and Mohammad Zikran (6) are undergoing treatment," he said.
The Bombay High Court on Monday deferred for a week the hearing on a contempt plea filed by Dhyandev Wankhede against Maharashtra cabinet minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik. Dhyandev, father of former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) zonal director Sameer Wankhede, has claimed that despite giving an undertaking to the court in December, Malik has continued to defame his family and made contentious remarks.
A division bench comprising Justice SJ Kathawalla and Justice MN Jadhav said that Malik has been arrested in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) case and, therefore, it would not make sense to take a decision whether to punish him or not for contempt of court on Monday.
The Home Department Monday appointed former acting DGP Sanjay Pandey as the police commissioner of Mumbai. Pandey will take over from Hemant Nagrale, who will now head the Maharashtra State Security Corporation. Pandey was removed as the acting DGP after a court case and was sent back to his original post of managing director of state security corporation. (With Yogesh Naik)
Three people were injured after a part of balcony collapsed in Kurla West area of Mumbai on Monday. The building is located near Vinoba Bhave police station in Kurla and the collapse took place at around 2:40 this afternoon.
All the injured have been currently admitted in Rajwada Hospital.
After fire fighting operations on Monday, the level- 2 fire at a building in NG Royal Park area of Kanjurmarg in Mumbai has now been extinguished. No injuries or deaths were reported due to the incident.
A level- 2 fire broke out on Monday at the NG Royal Park area of Kanjurmarg in Mumbai. The blaze was confined to the ninth and tenth floor of the building. Around 10 fire tenders are present at the spot and operations are underway.
Madhavi Puri Buch has been appointed the new SEBI chief.
She was earlier a whole-time member (WTM) at the SEBI. She is the first woman to head the market regulator.
Arrested NCP leader and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik's son Faraz has been summoned by Enforcement Directorate. His daughter Nilofer Malik Khan told The Indian Express that they received the summons at 11.30 am. The ED has asked for a document from the year 2000.
Faraz will not be visiting the ED office today and the family's lawyers will take a call, Malik Khan said.
Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) protested in Mumbai University’s Kalina campus on Monday morning against the amendments made to the Maharashtra Public Universities Act 2016, by the Maharashtra State Government.
Apart from holding placards, posters and shouting slogans, the protesters were ringing bells saying that they are waking up the sleeping government which has put autonomy of universities in jeopardy with political interference.
Today’s protest is part of ABVP’s month-long initiative under which several activities are held in colleges and universities across Maharashtra. The organisation is also holding signature drives everywhere, garnering more students' support against the amendments.
The Maharashtra legislative assembly in December, last year passed the Maharashtra Public Universities Act (Amendment) Bill which gives more power to higher and technical education minister with regards to the state-run universities. This is being opposed by the BJP which claims that this will lead to political interference in running of varsities, by undermining the role of Governor.
A 47-year-old farmer from Maharashtra's Palghar district was allegedly asked to call during office hours when he sought help from the national cybercrime reporting helpline after falling for an alleged financial fraud.
The national cybercrime reporting portal, however, states that the helpline is available 24x7.
An FIR was registered with the Pelhar police on February 26 based on the complaint of the man who allegedly lost Rs 1.24 lakh from his account. Read more
Sanket Patil, hailing from Dombivli in Maharashtra, was excited after getting admission in a Ukraine-based university for a medical course, but his happiness was short-lived as the east European country faced an attack by Russia minutes after he stepped into the educational institution's hostel on February 24.
The 23-year-old student is now confined to the hostel there and is staring at an uncertain future. His family back home is worried about his safety and is praying for his return soon.
Gokul Patil is now worried about his son's safe return. "There is no one there to take care of him. I am worried about his safety. After getting into the hostel, he called us and said all is well, but then the war began," he said. (PTI)
The Supreme Court is likely to hear Maharashtra government's plea to recall the 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in local bodies. The hearing will come amid upcoming local body polls in the state.
As per the SC directions given in January, the state's backward class commission had given an interim report on February 6, recommending up to 27 per cent OBC quota in local bodies. The state government has submitted the report on February 7 in the SC for a hearing scheduled to take place on February 8.
With 103 new infections on Sunday, Mumbai has recorded a slight increase in its daily case load in the last 24 hours. On Saturday, the city reported 89 new cases, the lowest single-day tally since Covid-19 cases were detected in the city in April 2020. Also, for the eighth time in February, the city reported zero Covid-19 deaths.
The test positivity rate — the number of positive cases out of the total tests conducted — stood at 0.56 per cent in Mumbai with 18,367 tests. Read more
From residents of apartment complexes who had to climb several flights of stairs in the absence of functional elevators to local train passengers who were seen walking on tracks, several residents of Mumbai faced inconvenience as parts of the city witnessed an hour-long power cut.
“I had gone out to buy groceries and when I came back, the lifts were down because of the power outage. After waiting for half an hour without any update on electricity resumption, I had to take the staircase to the 16th floor,” said Vidhi Bansal, a Worli resident. Read more
On February 17, the much-awaited water taxi service to connect Navi Mumbai and Mumbai was inaugurated. Linking Belapur to the Domestic Cruise Terminal (DCT), or Bhaucha Dhakka, in South Mumbai, it was labelled as the solution to cut travel time from around 90 minutes by road to 25 minutes along the coastline.
But in the 10 days since then, operators say, the speed boat service has run just three trips between the two locations while the catamaran ferry, for mass transport, has had no trips at all due to lack of commuter interest. Read more
For the third time this year, Mumbai’s air quality was worse than Delhi’s.
The city’s Air Quality Index (AQI) soared to 304 on Sunday and remained in the ‘red’ or ‘very poor’ category. Delhi, meanwhile, recorded an AQI of 83 (satisfactory). This is the second consecutive day that Mumbai’s AQI was red. On Saturday, the AQI of Mumbai was 302.
On Sunday, Mazgaon was the most polluted area as the AQI rose to 354. Similarly, Malad in western suburbs recorded AQI at 337 (very poor), Chembur (311) and Worli (306). Read more
Former Indian cricketer Vinod Kambli was arrested by the Bandra police on Sunday afternoon for allegedly driving in an inebriated condition and crashing his car into another vehicle. He was released on a bail later.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Manjunath Singhe (Zone-IX) confirmed the arrest and said: “He was in an intoxicated condition when the incident happened. The Bandra police have launched an investigation.” Read More
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Sunday asked Rajya Sabha MP Chhatrapati Sambhajiraje to end his fast seeking quota in jobs and education for the Maratha community.
Later in the day, state health minister Rajesh Tope said Sambhajiraje was weak but his vital parameters were normal, adding that health teams have been deputed to examine him every six hours.
Pawar told reporters the MVA government in the state will do all it can to ensure the welfare of the Maratha community. (PTI)
Mumbai recorded zero Covid-19 fatalities today for the eighth time in February. The city recorded 103 new Covid-19 cases today, while 165 patients recovered from the infection.
Poonawalla Breeders' Multimillion, the famous juvenile race, began at 6 pm in Mumbai. Here is a video of people enjoying the horse race at Mahalaxmi Race Course shot by Pradip Das.
A detailed investigation is being conducted on the Mumbai power outage today, said a statement by Mr. Sanjay Banga, President (T&D), Tata Power.
"Today morning at around 9:50 hrs, we felt grid disturbance in our Tata Power system. Our initial investigation is that this disturbance in our grid was because of the tripping of MSETCL lines," the statement read.
According to the statement, a reduction in power demand was observed in the city today, where total demand in Mumbai came down from 2000 MW to around 1200 MW which might have caused the disturbances in the system.
"We are coordinating with all agencies, including SLDC, to find out the exact reason and see how we can avoid such incidents in the future," the statement said.
You might draw a blank stare if you ask a local about directions to Joseph Baptista Gardens. But enquire about Mazgaon garden, you will be promptly pointed to an uphill path. Dotted with flowerbeds, the 135-year-old garden is spread over 1.5 acres atop Bhandarwada hill, the highest point in Mazgaon, a quaint dockyard suburb.
The garden is a 15-minute walk from the Dockyard station on the harbour line. Along this stretch, you will find several architectural delights – Prince Aly Khan Hospital, churches, bungalows and villas. Read More
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday alleged that Income Tax raids on the premises of Sena corporator Yashwant Jadhav were conducted with an eye on the upcoming Mumbai civic elections.
Talking to reporters here, Raut said these raids were conducted with an ulterior motive to malign Shiv Sena.
"We are noting all these things. People are also watching. Let them do it and find what they are searching for," Raut said. (PTI)
The power supply was restored in all affected sections by 10.53 in Mumbai, News agency ANI reported quoting Ravindra Bhakar, Chief Public Relation Officer (CPRO) of Western Railways. According to him, due to an hour-long power outage today morning, the suburban section between Churchgate & Andheri was affected, and about 50 trains got cancelled while 144 trains got delayed.
Ninad Pitale, director, Mumbai Urja Marg Transmission project said once operational, the project will be a gamechanger for Maharashtra with wide-reaching benefits for people and industries in the region.
“As India’s leading industrialised state and with an ambition of becoming a $1 trillion economy by 2025, the power sector in Maharashtra must find ways to anticipate and mitigate future disruptions in the power supply. To avoid recurring power outages, it is imperative to strengthen the existing transmission infrastructure and create an additional corridor to ensure reliable and uninterrupted power supply. Once operational, Mumbai Urja Marg Transmission project will be a gamechanger for Maharashtra with wide reaching benefits for people and industries in the region. It will increase power availability, improve system reliability and security, allow flexibility and choice to source cheaper and greener power for the state," Pitale said.
Maharashtra State Commission for Women said it has asked police to block the social media accounts spreading false information about the death Disha Salian, the former manager of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, and also sought action against Union minister Narayan Rane and his MLA son Nitesh Rane in this connection.
BJP leader Narayan Rane had questioned the circumstances surrounding the death of Salian (28) in June 2020.
In a series of tweets on Sunday, MSCW chairperson Rupali Chakankar said the Malvani police (in Mumbai) had told the commission that Salian's postmortem report stated that she was not raped and was not pregnant. (PTI)
Stepping up up hydrogeneration to full capacity allowed faster restoration and avoided a larger outage, Tata Power said in a statement following power cuts in several parts of Mumbai.
'At 9.50 am, power supply got affected due to tripping of MSETCL line at Trombay receiving station that connects to the Tata Power transmission system. This resulted in the tripping of Trombay Generation and cascade tripping of some internal lines affecting 850 MW load of all Discoms in Mumbai. Tata Power immediately stepped up hydrogeneration to full capacity for faster restoration and avoidance of larger outage. The power supply was restored completely in around an hour.'
An Adani Electricity Mumbai Ltd (AEML) spokesperson said, "Today's power outage was caused due to tripping of 220 kV transmission line and subsequent outage of Tata's Trombay power plant. Adani Electricity consumers were largely unaffected by today's power outage as we were able to ramp up our generation at Dahanu in a very short time. This helped early restoration of consumers in South Mumbai as well."
As several parts of Mumbai faced power outages, approximately 50 local trains were cancelled and 140 were delayed. The 12954 August Kranti Rajdhani Express reached Mumbai Central 30 minutes later than its scheduled arrival time.
Meanwhile, power supply tripped momentarily on Harbour and Main line of Central Railway from 9.49 am till 9.52 am. Trains are now running normally on all Central Railway corridors.
Power supply to most parts of Mumbai was restored by 11 am on Sunday morning and trains were also functioning normally.
A Tata power company statement said, "This morning, the Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Limited transmission line from Kalwa to Trombay had massive voltage fluctuations causing tripping of Trombay Salsette-1 on overload. This affected the South Mumbai electricity distribution system. However, Tata Power’s Hydro plants were intact, and the Bhira Hydro Plant got islanded and synchronised. Electricity has been restored to essential services. Tata Power team is working towards full restoration soon.”
On October 12, 2020, around 50 lakh homes and operational business around Mumbai suffered power cuts.
In the middle of the peak hour, Mumbai’s suburban train services were brought to a standstill for over two hours, forcing commuters, mainly essential commuters, to either switch to other means of transport, or to abandon their travel plans for the day. Hearings at the Bombay High Court were deferred. Domestic water supply to households located at the far ends of the water supply network was impacted. Traffic signals lost power in Mumbai. Read more
Due to a tripping of supply from Tata Power, a total failure of electricity was reported in Sion, Matunga, Parel, Dadar, CSMT, Byculla and Churchgate.
Some parts of Chembur, Bandra and Kurla have also been affected.
Western Railway network between Churchgate and Andheri, which was impacted for over an hour due a power outage in many parts of Mumbai, was restored at 10.45 am.
A Western Railway spokesperson told The Indian Express said that its network in the city was affected from 9.42 am to 10.45 am and supply was diverted from Jogeshwari area to restart the railways.
Power outages are being experienced due to tripping of MSEB 220kv transmission line on the Mulund-Trombay line. The power supply is expected to resume within an hour, according to the BMC.
For any assistance due to electric supply failure, the BMC's Disaster management control room can be reached at 02222694725/02222694727/61234000.
As parts of Mumbai experienced power outages, Maharashtra energy department's principal secretary Dinesh Waghmare said that the Mulund-Trombay line has tripped and work is on to locate the fault.
A total of 2,000 mangrove trees will be felled to make way for six bridges in Andheri and Malad to improve connectivity and ease traffic flow.
The Maharashtra Coastal Zone Regulation Authority (MCZMA), while deferring Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearance for five bridges, approved one proposal that will require cutting of at least 48 mangroves trees.
According to the Environment Impact Assessment report of all six bridges submitted by the BMC before MCZMA, the construction of all six bridges will be in environmentally sensitive CRZ areas and require felling of 1,966 mangrove trees and 6.35 hectare mangrove forest patch will be impacted due to the project. Read more
Observing that it cannot expect “citizens to languish in filthy and unhygienic slums” and that “the right to livelihood includes the right of decent living and not an animal existence,” the Bombay High Court has said that the “prime concern” of the state government should be to initiate affordable mass housing facilities for poor people who are forced to live in slums in bigger cities for work.
The court also reminded the municipal and state officers that the incidents of people losing their lives in building collapses are required to be completely avoided. Read more
Rajya Sabha MP Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati, a descendent of Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, on Saturday began his fast unto death demanding reservation for the Maratha community besides a decision on the other demands of the community.
Sambhajiraje’s fast unto death comes a day after the state government announced the setting up of a separate commission for the Maratha community to study its “backwardness”. This comes ahead of the state legislature’s budget session that will commence from March 3. Read more
Since June 2020, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has audited 29,271 private hospitals bills of Covid-19 patients and managed to reduce the total amount by Rs 20.98 crore from the initial Rs 616 crore. The audits also revealed that over two-fifth of the complaints of overcharging were inaccurate.
In the first wave, after it was flooded with complaints of inflated hospital bills for Covid-19 treatment, the civic body appointed 70 auditors who were tasked with auditing medical bills of 35 major private hospitals. Read more