In a major relief to industries, the state power distribution utility, citing improved electricity supply, has rolled back the weekly power cut industries were facing. A senior energy department official said that the 16 hours of staggering (ie scheduled power cuts) which was in place for industries was withdrawn earlier this month by the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited “until further orders” due to a reduced demand and supply gap.

As the city’s wetlands struggle for survival due to persistent construction activity and water pollution, a bunch of nature enthusiasts are hoping to transform some of these lesser known sanctuaries of tranquility into tourist spots. Recently, environmentalists organised walks along several coastal and mangrove areas in Sewri, Bandra, Andheri, Bhandup and Dahisar to sensitise nature lovers and the government to start an initiative to protect and promote the wetlands as tourist spots, instead of letting them fall into the hands of encroachers.

Bringing some degree of clarity to the negotiations on the proposed Jaitapur nuclear power plant, France said construction of the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) plant could start in less than a year’s time. Following the Fukushima nuclear accident and protests at Jaitapur, signing of a commercial agreement between French company Areva and India’s NPCIL was stalled.

While the government is flooded with applications for more coal mines, the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has posed a query about the actual usage of coal mines already granted clearance. In a meeting held in November last, the MoEF officials asked the coal ministry to get back to them with concrete numbers.

Girish Sant, founder of NGO Prayas, a policy advocacy group in the power sector, died of a heart attack in a hotel in New Delhi on Thursday. He was 46.
Sant completed his BTech in chemical engineering from IIT-Bombay in 1986, followed by a Master’s degree in energy systems engineering in 1988. But instead of pursuing a corporate career like most other IIT graduates, `Bandya’, as he was known to friends, chose to become an analyst in public policy. Prayas was a think tank that contributed greatly to the debate on power sector policy.

Jogging tracks, gardens, on-the-go shopping and eating spots on the skywalks, convenient bus-stops that do not encroach on the pavements - these are some of the recommendations made by a combined group of architecture students from India and France to ensure a more pedestrian-friendly city. The students of Bharati Vidyapeeth College of Architecture (BVCOA), Navi Mumbai, in association with a group from Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecturede Paris La Villette (ENSAPLV), France, studied varied crowded spots in Navi Mumbai before formulating these suggestions.

Observing that security scenarios keep changing every month, the Bombay high court has demanded that a map of the area around the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) refinery at Mahul in Chembur be produced before it. A division bench comprising justices SA Bobade and RD Dhanuka observed that refineries, which are “a class by itself”, are soft targets for the country’s economy as well as defence.

The Central Railway has finally formulated a public toilet policy and invited proposals for comprehensive toilet services at every railway station across the city. The policy lays down specific guidelines, including hiring uniformed staff, cleanliness norms and even the toiletries to be used inside. All stations in the Mumbai division have been clubbed as clusters — each having a maximum of seven to eight stations under it — and the toilet location specified for every platform, to enable proper monitoring and follow-ups.

With more and more multiple-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and extreme drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) cases getting added to the list, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and state officials are in a fix. A state official associated with tuberculosis control in the state said that they have been notified of 31 XDR-TB cases by the private labs so far. “As these laboratories are not accredited by Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme, we are tracking the people and sending their sputum samples for confirmatory tests,” he said.

The much touted 24x7 scheme for equal distribution of water in Pune seems to have slipped out of the political radar in the heat of the upcoming elections for the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). As per the official website of the PMC, 650MlD of water is supplied to the city by the irrigation department. However, irregular and erratic supply of water has been a major concern for the Puneites. Water crisis is acute mostly in the newly developed fringe areas of the city like Vimannagar, Kalyaninagar and Kharadi.