Heena Sharma Blog

  A 30-year-old man succumbed to injuries in a fire that broke out at a multi-story building in Mumbai's Parel area on Friday, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials said. As per the Mumbai Fire Department , the man jumped from the 19th floor of the building. The deceased has been identified as Arun Tiwari. Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar and other officials arrived at the spot. The Level Three fire broke out at Avighna park apartment, Curry Road around 12 noon the Mumbai Fire Department. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained. Read More

  The COVID-19 vaccination drive was suspended at civic and government-run centres in Mumbai on Wednesday due to paucity of vaccine doses, according to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. In a statement issued on Tuesday, the BMC said the inoculation drive will resume once it receives a fresh stock of vaccines. "Citizens of Mumbai are constantly informed about the vaccination, depending upon the stock of vaccines received, and an appropriate decision is taken," it said. This is the first time that the city civic authority has suspended the inoculation drive this month due to shortage of vaccines. Last month, it had suspended the vaccination drive in the city at least thrice because of the same reason. According to the BMC, so far 73,36,171 citizens have been inoculated in the metropolis. Out of them, 18,09,075 beneficiaries have received both the doses. Read More

  Heavy rainfall lashed Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra on Wednesday with the advance of the monsoon in the state. The city has been receiving rainfall since Tuesday night. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) recorded rainfall in Santacruz at 50.4 mm and in Colaba at 65.4 mm. "Monsoon has arrived in Mumbai today, normal arrival date is June 10 every year so it has arrived prior to the average arrival date," said Dr Jayanta Sarkar, Deputy Director General (DDG), IMD Mumbai. The IMD in a tweet said that the southwest monsoon is likely to advance into more parts of Maharashtra and is likely to advance into more parts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, some parts of Odisha, and more parts of West Bengal during the next two days. Read More

  The south-west monsoon arrived in Mumbai and its neighbouring areas on Wednesday, the IMD announced as heavy rains lashed the country's financial capital and suburbs since early morning. Local train services from Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji MaharajTerminus (CSMT) to neighbouring Thane and Vashi in Navi Mumbai were suspended due to water-logging on some railway tracks, officials said. Routes of some BEST buses run the city civic body's transport wing were also diverted, they said. A high tide of over four metres is expected around noon in the Arabian Sea, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said. "It's monsoon arrival in Mumbai today," said Dr Jayanta Sarkar, head of the India Meteorological Department's (IMD) Mumbai office. Read More

  Mumbai received 230 mm rainfall due to the cyclonic storm Tauktae , with a weather expert claiming it to be the highest 24-hour downpour in May in the recorded history. According to the India Meteorological Department's (IMD) Mumbai centre, the Santacruz observatory (representative of suburbs) recorded 230.3 mm rainfall in the 24-hour period ending at 8.30 am on Tuesday. Besides, the Colaba observatory (representative of south Mumbai) recorded 207.6 mm rain during the same period. As per the IMD's calculations, rainfall above 204.5 mm is considered as extremely heavy, "Mumbai (Santacruz): 230 mm in last 24 hrs due to cyclone effect, this is the highest 24hrs rain in Mumbai in May in the recorded history. #CycloneTauktae," Vineet Kumar, a researcher on cyclones in the north Indian Ocean at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune, tweeted on Tuesday. Read More

  The civic authorities in Mumbai have collected fines to the tune of over Rs 54 crore in the last one year from 26.87 lakh citizens who violated the COVID-19 mask rule in public places during the pandemic, an official said on Wednesday. As per the data released by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), as many as 4,314 people were caught without masks on Tuesday, of which 1,478 were nabbed by the city police. A total fine of Rs 5.67 lakh was collected from these offenders during the day, it stated. The BMC had made wearing masks or covering the mouth mandatory in public places in April 2020 due to the rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in the city, and violators were slapped with a fine of Rs 200. The civic body has deployed marshals to enforce mask rule at public places. Mumbai, one of the worst-affected metropolises in the country, has so far recorded 6,61,420 infections and 13,470 casualties. Read More

  With new coronavirus -induced restrictions coming into force in Maharashtra from Thursday night, the state government said only government personnel and health workers will be allowed to travel by suburban trains in Mumbai. The fresh restrictions under the government's 'Break- the-Chain' programmer came into force at 8 pm on Thursday and will remain effective till 7 am on May 1. No one else even notified as essential services or under exemptions as per earlier government orders will be allowed to use local trains during this period, said a statement issued by the office of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray here. Government entities include civic bodies of Mumbai, Thane and other corporations, zilla parishads, government authorities, statutory commissions and agencies, the statement said. Accredited media personnel are prominent among those excluded from the use of suburban trains which are the lifeline of Mumbai and its satellite towns. Read More

  Half of the manufacturing units in Maharashtra could remain shut for the next fortnight as the state’s new Covid-19 norms come into effect. These include appliance and apparel makers, which fall in the non-essential category. On Tuesday, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray announced a 15-day statewide curfew and a host of other restrictions to contain the spread of the coronavirus.   According to the order, all factories producing essential goods and services will remain operational at full capacity. Export-oriented units will remain open to fulfil their export obligations. Industries that require continuous manufacturing, too, can operate with 50 per cent workforce. Relaxation has also been provided for factories that offer in-house accommodation. But, all other factories must stop their operations for the next 15 days. “Around 50 per cent of the manufacturing units in Maharashtra could remain shut because of the state government’s new restrictions. Industry should hav...

  Amid fears of a complete lockdown in Maharashtra, a heavy rush of passengers was witnessed at Mumbai's Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) for boarding trains on Thursday. The Railway administration, including Railway Protection Force (RPF), Government Railway Police (GRP), and local police, however, managed to control the crowd in coordination with ticket checking staff and only valid ticket holders were allowed to enter the station. According to the Railway Administration, some people tried to enter the railway station with fake stickers and false identity cards but Railway and police staff stopped them from entering the station and boarding trains by checking their tickets and ID cards before their entry to Terminus building. Amid the surge in COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra, trains at Mumbai's Lokmanya Tilak Terminus were earlier seen packed with migrant workers as they feared an impending lockdown. Due to a sharp rise in COVID cases, the Maharashtra government on Tuesda...

  The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Sunday informed that it has collected Rs 40 crores from April 2020 to March 21, 2021 from 20 lakh offenders who violated the mandatory face mask rule to prevent the spread of COVID-19 . Maharashtra reported 30,535 fresh COVID-19 cases, 11,314 recoveries, and 99 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per the State Health Department.With these new cases, the cumulative count has surged to 24,79,682 including 2,10,120 active cases and 22,14,867 recoveries. The COVID-19 death toll in the state stood at 53,399. The fatality rate in the state now stands at 2.15 per cent. Mumbai reported 3,775 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total number of coronavirus cases in the capital city to 3,62,654. Read More

  Police conducted a raid on a club near Mumbai airport in the early hours of Tuesday and arrested 34 people for allegedly violating the COVID-19 prevention norms, an official said. The police action came after the Maharashtra government on Monday declared a night curfew in municipal corporation areas as a precautionary step amid growing concerns over a new coronavirus variant spreading in Britain. Acting on an information, the police raided the club located in Sahar area near the airport around 2 am. They arrested 27 customers present in the club and seven staff members, the police official said. Those arrested were booked under relevant Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections, including 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), he added. Read More

  In a bid to prevent crowding in local trains in Mumbai, railway authorities added 753 new special services from Monday, taking the total number of services on the suburban network to2,773, officials said. With this, the railway authorities have resumed 88 per cent of the total 3,141 suburban services which were being operated before the outbreak of COVID-19 , they said. During normal times before the lockdown, the Central Railway (CR) used to operate 1,772 services, while the Western Railway (WR) ran 1,367 services on the suburban network, they said. The local trains, considered, as the lifeline of Mumbai, were resumed for the emergency and essential services staff in June this year. To cater to the increasing crowd in suburban trains, the Central Railway has now added 552 more services on its routes, while the Western Railway has added 201 services, as per a joint press release issued by the CR and WR on Sunday. Read More

  Train services came to a halt, homes and businesses were without electricity and people sweltered in humid heat as a grid failure resulted in massive power outages across Mumbai Monday morning. As the day progressed, power restorations efforts began on war footing. Trains have started to resume operations, beginning with CR's Harbour Line. The trains are carrying only essential services workers at present, which helped minimise the passenger inconvenience. Railway services across city on the Western Railway and Central Railway came to a grinding halt at 1005 hrs as a result of the power outage, with both the networks blaming power cut from Tata Power (their power supplier) for it. State's Power Minister Nitin Raut said the trouble emanated from Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company (MSETCL) facilities during a planned maintenance work. Read More

  Google on Thursday launched a new feature in the Covid-19 layer on Maps that displays the demarcation of containment zones in Mumbai. Google said it is working closely with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for sourcing this information and will update this data regularly. As people and businesses emerge from the lockdown, access to clear information about Covid-19 containment zones as recommended by the authorities in Mumbai will enable users to make better decisions as they move around the city. "This new feature strengthens our commitment towards working closely with the government to disseminate helpful, authoritative, and relevant information for people during the pandemic," said a company spokesperson. Read More

  The Maharashtra government is seriously considering resumption of normal local train services in Mumbai by October 15, Shiv Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' on Wednesday said quoting state minister Aaditya Thackeray . According to the Sena publication, Thackeray who is the environment and tourism minister, said the issue of resumption of suburban train services for common citizens is being considered as part of efforts to bring the state's economy back on track. In a bid to curb the spread of COVID-19, the local trains are currently being run only for essential services staff, state and central government staff, employees of nationalised and private banks, PSUs and pharma companies, and QR code-based identity cards are mandatory for them. Read More  

  Mumbai on Wednesday recorded the highest spike of 2,227 new COVID-19 cases , taking the total count of infections to 1,60,744, a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official said. The cumulative toll mounted to 7,982 with 43 fatalities. Earlier, Mumbai had seen the highest single-day rise of 1,929 cases on September 4. A total of 839 patients were discharged after treatment on Wednesday, taking the number of recoveries to 1,26,745, he said. Mumbai's current recovery is 79 per cent, he said. The city now has 25,659 active cases, the highest number since more than a month. Read More

The COVID-19 situation "is in control" in Mumbai with the number of positive cases daily being reported below 1,500, a senior official of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has said. Everyday, 6,000 to 7,000 tests are being done and most of the citizens are following the safety protocols, additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani told PTI. The city has been daily reporting less than 1,500 COVID-19 cases since the last many days. "The situation is in control," Kakani said. After the outbreak of COVID-19 in the city, the BMC focussed on slum pockets by tracing high risk contacts and sending them to quarantine centres, and if they tested positive, they were kept at isolation facilities, he said. Read More

The Maharashtra government on Monday said that the lockdown in the state is being extended till July 31. The announcement comes amid a rapid growth in the number of cases in the state. The current lockdown was to end on June 30. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had on Sunday ruled out lifting the lockdow n from July 1. The government issued guidelines for what it called ' Mission Begin Again ’. The order said that movement for non-essential activities will be restricted within neighbourhoods in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). It further reads, “It is further directed that the movement of persons for the purposes of non-essential activities like shopping and the outdoor exercises, shall be restricted within the neighbourhood area limits with all necessary prescribed mandatory precautions of wearing masks, social distancing and personal hygiene.” Read More

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday asked people not to panic over Centre's health team projections about a surge of Covid-19 cases in Mumbai, stating that the number of hot spots in the state had reduced to five from 14. He also said that the rate of doubling of cases in the state had improved to 7.01 days from 3.1 days earlier this month. "There is no need to panic over the central government's team projections that Mumbai might have 42,604 cases by April 30 and 6.50 lakh patients by May 15," Tope said in an online address to people. Read More

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday suggested a graded lifting of the 21-day lockdown for areas other than the Covid-19 hotspots in the country. Here's what PM Modi means by a graded lifting of the lockdown and what are these so-called Covid-19 hotspots in the country: But first, the latest update on the outbreak: The number of Covid-19 positive cases in India has reached 4,778, with 693 new cases being reported in the past 24 hours alone. So far, around 136 people have died of the disease and the Union Health Ministry suggests that the country is somewhere between Stage 2 and 3 of the coronavirus pandemic. Read More