Mumbai Beat

MUMBAI, January 18: Maharashtra government would provide free houses to five to eight lakh slumdwellers'' in Mumbai within the next two ye...

MUMBAI, January 18: Maharashtra government would provide free houses to 8220;five to eight lakh slumdwellers8221; in Mumbai within the next two years, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi said. 8220;Following some recent decisions, we8217;ve managed to remove 90 per cent of the hurdles in our ambitious slum rehabilitation scheme and the work on the project is expected to get a boost,8221; Joshi said.

A major hurdle regarding the Coastal Regulatory Zone CRZ norms having been removed during the last couple of days, it8217;s now possible for us to provide houses to around five to eight lakh slum dwellers within the next two years, he said.

Cab drivers8217; demand

General secretary of Mumbai Taximen8217;s Union MTU A L Quadros has asked the Railway Ministry to halt Train no. 9707 up/ 9708 dn at Chhapi railway station. The train was running between Mumbai to Ahmedabad, and extended up to Jaipur recently. The train halts at all stations after Ahmedabad except Chhapi.

The Chhapi station is located in between Sidhpur and Palanpur. The distance between these stations is 50 kms. The Chhapi station is surrounded by 40 to 50 villages and most of the villagers are taxi operators of Mumbai. They often visit their native places for cultivation.

Cindy8217;s visit

The city is all set for Cindy Crawford8217;s visit. She is arriving on Friday morning and will be staying at the Taj. Cindy is the icon of glamour in the West having been a supermodel, filmstar, MTV VeeJay as well as Omega8217;s representative. Her day kicks off with a press meet at the Taj at 10 am.

Then a lunch hosted by the Beautiful Group. Cindy will be in town to promote Omega watches, the retail outlet in Mumbai for which will be Beautiful Boulevard. The invitee list to the lunch is restricted to 350 people.8220;The city8217;s leading celebrities as well as the store8217;s regular clients will attend the lunch,8221; said Anna Bredmyere, Beautiful Boulevard8217;s ambassador. This list includes Anand Mahindra, Kumarmanglam Birla and Anil Ambani. Plus Channel8217;s Amit Khanna, Verve editor Anuradha Mahindra, and actor Sanjay Dutt.