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Hindustan Times
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Hindustan Times
MSRTC to set up 100-acre vehicle scrapping facility near Sambhaji Nagar
MUMBAI: In a bid to increase the revenue of the debt-ridden Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), the transport department has decided to set up a mega vehicle scrapping facility near Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar on 100 acre of land. It will be on Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis and the bidder will be selected on the basis of share he offers in revenue. The upcoming facility would be around 20 times bigger than the existing facilities in the state, which are on 2-5 acre of land. Mumbai, India –08 June 2018: A View of ST buses lined up at the Mumbai Central depot, after Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) workers went on a flash strike, in Mumbai, on Friday, June 08, 2018. (Photo by Bhushan Koyande/HT) In 2021, the central government came up with a policy for scientifically scrapping vehicles which are over 15 years old, under the Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facility (RVSF) guidelines. Maharashtra government adopted this policy in 2023, and as per the Automotive Industry Standard (AIS), guidelines have been laid down for granting recognition to such scrapping centres. The largest facility will be built at Khuldabad in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district, on a 100-acre MSRTC-owned land parcel. Currently, eight authorised entities operate scrapping centers in the state, each with an annual capacity of scrapping a minimum of 1,000 vehicles. Transport minister Pratap Sarnaik on Friday held a meeting regarding the scrapping of vehicles and facility centres. 'This new centre will ensure that old vehicles are scientifically dismantled and their parts are permanently disposed off in a way that prevents reuse. The initiative is expected to generate a new and sustainable revenue stream for MSRTC,' he said. This decision is expected to earn revenue for the debt-ridden MSRTC. The white paper released last week on the financial situation of MSRTC showed that its accumulated losses for five decades stand at ₹ 10,322 crore while dues towards employees' provident fund and gratuity are ₹ 3,297 crore. A transport department officer said that the site for the new facility has access from different regions of the state. 'It's on a fast track route from Mumbai and Vidarbha region due to Samruddhi Express highway. It is close to north Maharashtra and also western Maharashtra. In the coming years, around 6000 ST buses of MSRTC would go for scrapping as they would be old. Vehicles from government offices will also go for scrapping. So there is a huge scope for this facility to give good revenue to MSRTC.' He also added that MSRTC is planning to float tender on the basis of revenue-sharing model instead of a one-time amount, and the company which will offer a bigger share would get the work.
Hindustan Times
6 days ago
- Climate
- Hindustan Times
Mumbai to see a rainy weekend
Jun 27, 2025 07:34 AM IST Mumbai: After a week of light drizzles and occasional showers, the city can gear up for a weekend of heavy rainfall as per the India Meteorological Department's (IMD) forecast on Thursday. The alert continues till June 30, barring Saturday when moderate rain is expected in isolated areas. (Bhushan Koyande/HT Photo) The weather station has signalled a yellow alert starting Friday warning citizens to be aware that the weather could cause minor disruptions. The alert continues till June 30, barring Saturday when moderate rain is expected in isolated areas. Similar alerts have been sounded for Palghar and Thane, while Raigad is under an orange alert. Following the intense humidity, a trough running across the northeast Arabian sea, South Gujarat and north Madhya Maharashtra will bring rain.
Hindustan Times
24-06-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Worli jetty can be used as helipad: BMC gets Pawan Hans clearance
Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has received a favourable report from Pawan Hans Ltd confirming that the Worli jetty is structurally feasible and logistically suitable for conversion into a helipad for medium-sized helicopters, according to civic chief Bhushan Gagrani. Situated 120 metres into the Arabian Sea, opposite Worli Dairy, the jetty was originally built as a temporary structure during the construction of the first phase of the Mumbai Coastal Road. (Bhushan Koyande/HT Photo) However, due to the jetty's strategic location in a sensitive zone, clearances will also be required from other regulatory bodies such as the Ministry of Forests and Environment, the Maharashtra home department and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation for aviation safety and airspace compliance. Once it gets all the clearances, Gagrani said the helipad will serve multiple purposes, including facilitating medical evacuations, improving VIP transportation, enhancing marine security surveillance, and boosting tourism. 'It can be used mainly as a heli-ambulance, in any other emergency, or maybe some future scheduled service, like Mumbai-Shirdi, for people,' he added. Situated 120 metres into the Arabian Sea, opposite Worli Dairy, the jetty was originally built as a temporary structure during the construction of the first phase of the Mumbai Coastal Road. It was supposed to be dismantled upon the project's completion, but was retained at the request of the coastal police for surveillance purposes. Its reinforced cement concrete structure has now attracted the interest of urban planners exploring aerial connectivity for the city. The initiative stems from a directive by Maharashtra deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde, who urged civic officials to examine the feasibility of setting up a helipad at the location. A structural assessment by the Maharashtra Maritime Board confirmed the site's suitability for such a project. Following this, the BMC brought in Pawan Hans Ltd, a public-sector aviation company under the Ministry of Civil Aviation, to conduct a detailed feasibility study.
Hindustan Times
21-06-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
State wants global architects for Maha Vista, to float fresh tender
MUMBAI: The response to the state's grand plan for a Maha Vista has not been 'maha' enough. The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance government will therefore float a fresh tender, inviting architects from all over the world to submit designs for a makeover of the Mantralaya precinct in South Mumbai. The idea is to redevelop the precinct on the lines of the Central Vista in New Delhi. Mantralaya building. (Photo by Bhushan Koyande/HT Photo) The nodal agency for the project is the state public works department (PWD). Chief engineer Ranjeet Rahane said, 'The tender we floated earlier drew a response from just three Indian architects. The government wants more architects, and global ones. So we will be issuing another tender.'' Plans to completely remodel the Mantralaya precinct, in the offing for a long time, began to take shape in February last year, when deputy chief minister and finance minister Ajit Pawar announced the Maha Vista project in his budget speech. With the space crunch at the secretariat assuming alarming proportions, and given that the building itself is more than 60 years old, the government plans to redevelop the secretariat and annex; the iconic Vidhan Bhavan, or state legislature; and the row of British-era ministerial bungalows on Madam Cama Road opposite the secretariat. After the Mantralaya fire in 2012, several government departments such as medical education, public health, rural development and water supply have been operating from independent premises. Currently, the secretariat is undergoing major renovations to accommodate the ballooning staff of the ministers, many of whom have been assigned cabins being built in the corridors. The row of colonial-era ministerial bungalows opposite Mantralaya too will be razed, making way for residential towers to accommodate IAS officers and ministers. They will be equipped with modern amenities and adequate parking facilities. Since the precinct is defined by art deco norms, the rules are likely to be tweaked so that the towers align with the area's architectural identity. Since colonial times, the area where the ministerial bungalows stand and its periphery were marked for a garden. Over time, the Mahatma Gandhi Garden was developed near the LIC Building, while part of the space opposite was developed into Jawaharlal Nehru Garden. The rest was taken over to build the state BJP office, and other offices for political parties.
Hindustan Times
07-05-2025
- General
- Hindustan Times
From sirens to silence: How Mumbai lost its daily wail
For decades, at exactly 9.00am, a mechanical wail would ripple through Mumbai's neighbourhoods. It wasn't an emergency. It was routine. Mumbai, India – 06, May 2025: RPF team, with sniffer dogs conducting the mock drill rehearsal underway at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) by the Central Railway, in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday, May 06, 2025. (Photo by Bhushan Koyande/HT Photo) The city's air raid sirens – mounted on rooftops of police stations, government offices, railway buildings and municipal infrastructure – were a holdover from a more anxious time. After the 1971 war, these daily tests became a civic ritual. Office-goers, schoolchildren, shopkeepers all knew the drill. The siren marked the start of the working day. People set their watches to it. And then, one day, it stopped. No warning. No replacement. The sound simply vanished from the city's busy life, and little did anyone notice in the new era of digital watches and cell phones. Today, as the country gears up for a nationwide emergency preparedness drill amid a notification from Ministry of Home Affairs, many Mumbaikars are being reminded of something they had long forgotten: those sirens weren't just background noise. They were part of a larger civil defence system. Mumbai had over 270 such sirens, installed during the early '60s and '70s, covering key government, defence and civilian clusters across the city. The system was powered by MTNL copper cables, linked to a central control room. A single command could activate sirens city-wide -– a legacy trigger for the entire network. The 9am test wasn't just ceremonial. It helped check the integrity of the system itself: a daily confirmation that the grid was functional, ready for deployment. It wasn't war that silenced Mumbai's sirens though – it was floodwater. The devastating deluge of July 2005 crippled the underground cable networks that linked these sirens. While MTNL did later upgrade to optic fibre, the sirens relied on legacy signals and became incompatible with the larger advancement. Since then, the sirens have been little more than rooftop relics. According to Directorate of Civil Defence, a part of Government of Maharashtra, only 126 sirens were technically in working condition as of March 2023. But they could not be remotely triggered. In case of an actual emergency, each one would have to be triggered manually with no city-wide coordination. In August 2023, the DCD (GoM) executed a study with MTNL (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited) to explore revival of the siren network. The idea was to replace analogue triggers with digital infrastructure, similar to Mumbai's City Surveillance project that relies on optic fibre, provides more bandwidth, and can be programmed to have varying wails to indicate the type of emergency. The study included an audit of existing sirens, range limitations, network infrastructure implementation, and cost of reactivation. The plan was solid. But like many legacy upgrades, it got stuck in bureaucratic limbo, even lost relevance after two decades of silence. No further updates or information have been made public since. But with 4G connectivity, smartphone alerts, and the National Disaster Management Authority's Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) – can't emergencies be handled remotely through smartphones? Yes – but only to a point. Sirens still offer something remote systems can't: instant, mass notification that doesn't depend on phones, apps, battery life, language, or even mobile signal. In case of a power outage or a network blackout, a siren still works as an isolated medium. That's why countries like Japan, South Korea, the U.S., and Israel continue to maintain and modernize their public siren networks. They are deployed across varying disasters – earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, military threats, and even curfews. For Mumbai, a heavy cloud burst is a natural, recurring use case. Hence, sirens aren't outdated. They're redundancy by design. Today's mock drill isn't just a box-ticking exercise. It's a timely nudge from the Centre to states: dust off the old systems, test what still works, fix what doesn't. Whether it's control rooms, SOPs, or rooftop sirens – preparedness is no longer optional. For Mumbai, that means reassessing systems like its siren network – not as nostalgia, but as essential or critical infrastructure. The city already knows how vulnerable it is to floods, hurricanes, and large-scale disruptions. Relying entirely on smartphone alerts without a functional physical backup is a risk we can't afford. As tensions rise globally, India isn't predicting war – but it is preparing anyway. And that means revisiting old civil defence systems, updating what can be salvaged, and acknowledging that worst-case planning isn't paranoia. It's civic duty.
