The snake was later found dead by the roadside with a few deep injuries near its head.It is not known whether the reptile came under the wheels of a car or if it was eventually killed by locals who gathered at the spot after the accident.

Assistant commissioner of police (traffic) S Y Dhivare said the incident occurred a little after 11 am at the Sanpada section of 9-km-long Palm Beach Road.It was a Santro driver who first applied the brakes after seeing the snake.Soon vehicles behind it started ramming into each other.None of the motorists were seriously injured.Only two of them were taken to a local hospital for minor bruises, an official said.

While the Turbhe police has only registered the incident as a minor accident in their records,there is no mention of the snake.

Deputy conservator of forests (Alibaug taluka) Subhash Hivalekar said several snakes are killed on roads and highways while crossing over.Sometimes,if a rare snake is killed,the police do inform the forest department.But mostly such cases go unreported, said Hivalekar.
Source: timesofindia.com

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NAVI MUMBAI: A major fire broke out in a chemical warehouse near Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Navi Mumbai on Sunday night, which spread in an area of one kilometre in the premise. Around 80 fire engines were rushed to the spot to extinguish the fire. However, the firemen could not bring the fire under control till the paper went to press.

The fire broke out in the chemical storage of Punjab Conware warehouse at around 10 pm on January 31. Even 24 hours later, the fire could not be brought under control even as 80 fire engines were put to service. Since the fire continued to engulf the whole place, an alert has been issued to the Indian Oil storage which is few kilometres away from the warehouse. No injuries have been reported, police said.

The two storeyed building is the biggest warehouse in the area. This warehouse stores chemical items as well as electronic goods which are imported and exported from the port. Fire engines of CIDCO, JNPT, ONGC, Gas Generation Plant were also pressed in to service to douse the fire. Fire engines from Mumbai and Thane have also been engaged in the work apart from those from Vashi, Airoli and CBD.

The storage of Indian Oil is just few kilometres away from this site. “Incidents of oil leakage have occurred in this area earlier. Thus we have issued a high alert in this region,” an official from the fire brigade said. “Though the reasons are still not known, prima facie it seems that the warehouse could have caught fire due to a short circuit. The fire brigade officials are putting their effort to restrict it extend in the storage,” a police official from Uran police station said.

Gateway Distriparks Ltd, the holding company, has informed BSE that a fire has broken out on January 31  at the warehouse of its Punjab Conware CFS facility at Navi Mumbai. Last year, the same warehouse had caught fire. Though the extent of damage to property is yet to be assessed, it is estimated to run into crores, police said.

Source: sakaaltimes.com

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NAVI MUMBAI: Top celebrities and VIPs, including a cricketer, a singer, a business tycoon and several builders, have been slapped with notices from the cess department of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) for failure to pay tax on purchase of luxury cars.

In all, the NMMC has to collect over Rs 70 crore in cess from individuals for vehicle sales in 2009, for which over 24,000 notices have been sent. Another whopping Rs 100 crore cess tax has to be collected from a state government agency which did not pay the cess amount to the civic body.

Nearly 30 famous personalities are among those to get notices for not paying the mandatory cess duties on car purchases. In fact, the NMMC is surprised that some of the “rich and famous people” have bought over a dozen luxury cars like Mercedes, Lexus, BMW, Porches and Audi from Navi Mumbai region in order to save money, yet failed to pay the cess to NMMC.

A Cess a simplified form of Octroi. The advantage of paying cess is that the vehicle owner will not be stopped at any octroi post to cough up the tax, as was done in the past.

“In order to save money, the rich and the famous buy cars from Navi Mumbai region, which only levies a cess of 1%, unlike the steep 5.5% octroi charged on car sales in Mumbai region. Even then, they do not pay the cess valid on such purchases,” said an NMMC official.

In fact, the famous cricketer who recently bought a BMW car from a Navi Mumbai dealer, has reportedly given a wrong residential address at the RTO registration office.

However, Navi Mumbai based car owners are complaining that the onus of paying cess technically lies with the car dealer, so why should the buyer be harassed with notices.

The chief spokesperson of NMMC, J N Sinnarkar, said, “I don’t know if there are any famous personalities who have been sent notices. You will have to talk to the head of Cess department, Mahavir Pendhari, but he will be available on Monday.” Sinnarkar, however, confirmed that Navi Mumbai is a popular destination for car purchases, due to the low cess tax of just 1% of the vehicle price.

In 2009, Navi Mumbai car dealers sold 996 luxury cars, including 233 Mercedes cars, 122 BMWs, 37 Audi models, 1 Hummer, 161 Honda CR-Vs, 18 Nissan make cars, 6 Porsches, 38 Pajeros, 110 Ford models, 45 Scodas, 2 Rolls Royce cars and 3 Lexus make vehicles.

Source: indiatimes.com

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The “Pop Queen” Vaishali Samant, who has created waves in the world of Indipop and playback singing, performed at the closing ceremony of the Artisan Mela organised by the Surabhi Foundation, which was held from January 23 to 27 at Navi Mumbai. The five-day fiesta was part of the larger CIDCO Navi Mumbai Festival. Bhajan maestro Shri Anup Jalota is the chief guest at the closing ceremony.

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The historic Panvel (or Ulve) creek gets special mention in the Bombay Gazette records. Centuries ago the creek used to have pearls on its sandy bed and was a focal point of trade and commerce with Persia. Today, the creek is mined for a different kind of treasure—its dark sand—and this could soon transform the creek into an ugly, black canal.

The dark sand dredged is used in construction activity, say environmental activists. Miners have been dredging the creek for years together and storing the sand on dry docks on both sides of the creek, which is considered a Coastal Regulation Zone. The sand is reportedly sold to builders in and around Navi Mumbai. The 7-km-long creek passes through Taloja, Panvel and Ulve, before entering the sea at Belapur.

A senior official with the Thane collectorate said that the administration has been vigilant in the area after receiving complaints about the illegal activity. “We have penalised 214 trucks and recovered penalties worth Rs 24.63 lakh from offenders carrying unauthorised excavated sand last year,’’ the official said.

But residents say the illegal activity continues with the help of local godfathers. “The creek has been exploited to the hilt as the transportation costs are at a minimum, but a great ecological damage has been done over the years,’’ said P B Menon, a resident who lives near the creek. Swati Park residents have undertaken a signature campaign to stop the illegal activity and even filed a PIL on the issue. “We feel the creek will become another Mithi river in a few years’ time. That is when Navi Mumbai will see more floods,’’ Menon said.

Activists say that more than sand mining, it is the dumping of debris on both sides of the creek that is slowly killing the creek. “Truckloads of debris are being carried along the creek and pucca roads are being made to dump the debris on the banks. On both sides of the creek, there are huge mounds of sand as high as two-storey buildings which is periodically dredged from the creek,’’ Menon said.

He said that even at the mouth of the creek near the new bridge connecting Belapur and Panvel, debris is being dumped over mangroves and new embankments are slowly being created to extend the dry docks.

Source: indiatimes.com

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The bid is 143% higher than the Rs630 crore base price fixed by Cidco. The highest bidder in this public-private partnership project was Future City Properties Pvt Ltd, a consortium led by the Bhushan Steel group, a leading auto-steel manufacturing company. Located roughly 2km away from Kharghar station, the theme park will have film-based rides, studio tours, a convention centre, an amphitheatre, a festive plaza, museums, shopping malls, hotels and restaurants, monorail, and an art gallery.

As per the plan, 60% of the 250 acres will be used for the theme park while the remaining area will be used for residential and commercial development. If the Cidco board confirms the winning bid, Future City will get a 60-year lease of the property. The total cost of the project, to be completed over seven years, is estimated at Rs7,809 crore. Nittin Johari, director (finance), Bhushan Steel, confirmed the project bid.

However, he was unable to provide the details of the project as it was being handled by another part of the group. Another official of the company said Bhushan Steel had been looking for an opportunity to diversify into different businesses. “This particular plan was put on the backburner because of the slowdown. Now, the economy is looking up, and the company decided to bid for the project,’’ said the official. The other two bids for the Kharghar project were far lower, at Rs 1,059.51 crore and Rs 808 crore. A consortium of Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd and the Abu Dhabi-based Centre of Excellence for Applied Research and Training made the former bid, while another consortium of GVK Developmental Projects Pvt Ltd and Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) quoted Rs 808 crore.

The theme selected by Future City is Bollywood Hills while the other two consortiums wanted to develop the area on the theme of Sky Castle and Knowledge City respectively. The Future City bid is one of the biggest received by Cidco in recent years. Two years ago, Larsen and Toubro (L&T), a leading construction giant, successfully bagged Cidco’s Seawoods integrated development project for a whopping Rs 1,809 crore. Being a public-private project, a new company will be formed jointly by Cidco and Future City. Cidco’s participation will be 26% without any cash investment from its side. “The consortium will make a detailed project report within the next eight months. After the plan is approved, construction will start. As per the deadline fixed for the project, we expect the park to be ready by 2017,’’ said GS Gill, managing director, Cidco. Added Dr DLN Murthy, Cidco’s general manager (IT & SP): “The response was simply unexpected. This is a one-of-its-kind project and will boost realty prices in the developing city. The revenue generated by the project can be utilised for the city’s development.’’

As per an estimate, the theme park is expected to generate a footfall of 22,000 persons on holidays and 8,000 persons on week days. Future City was selected by a technical panel of experts comprising the Maharashtra additional chief secretary, the vice-chairman and managing director of the Maharashtra Airport Development Authority, RC Sinha, the director of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Developmental Research, Dilip Nachne, the managing director of General Atlantic, Ranjit Pandit, the former chief planner of MMRDA, VK Phatak, and the managing director (special projects) for SKIL, DP Sawant. The expert committee rated Future City’s project at 86.50, with the other two scoring 52.20 and 77.26.

Source: dnaindia.com

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A division bench of Justice J N Patel and Justice B R Gavai ruled that its directive would hold irrespective of whether the government had notified a mangrove plot as “protected forests” or not.

“No non-forest activities will be permitted throughout the state,” said the judges, while hearing a public interest litigation filed by the Bombay Environmental Action Group for the conservation of mangroves. The court’s order comes four years after the high court in October 2005, had ordered that hacking of mangroves be stopped and a ban on construction and dumping of garbage in such areas.

Following the court’s orders in 2005, the state had conducted satellite mapping of the coast to identify mangrove areas. According to BEAG, though the court had then directed that all mangrove plots be declared as “protected forests”, the government had done so only with around 5,557 hectares of mangrove areas in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.

The government was yet to act on notifying a substantial chunk of around 25,000 hectares of mangrove plots in the rest of the state to grant them protected status.

Tata Power and other public as well as private companies have approached the court as some of their development projects in or near mangrove areas have been held up because of the 2005 HC ban. The proposed projects are to come up in 550 hectares of mangrove land and include the transharbour sea-link, new airport, storm-water drain works among others. The court has asked the agencies to approach the “competent authorities” for approval. All such approvals would also have to get the court’s nod, the HC said.

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Deputy municipal commissioner (cess department) of the NMMC, Mahavir Pendhari, said that banks selling gold have to pay one per cent of the total monetary transaction as cess. In other cities like Mumbai, Thane etc octroi of one per cent is collected from banks selling gold.

Customers prefer buying gold from banks in the form of lumps, biscuits etc as banks claim to sell 99.9 per cent pure gold. The NMMC’s cess department which started cracking down on banks for non-payment of cess recently recovered Rs 1.5 crore from three banks in merely two days. “Our officials go to each branch and put notices about non-payment of dues,” said Pendhari.

This drive comes close on the heels of notices being sent to celebrities for non-payment of cess on luxury cars. NMMC said it would seek police help to freeze bank accounts of defaulters.

Cess is a simplified form of octroi introduced by the state government in Navi Mumbai in 1996. Unlike octroi, cess is collected from the dealer or the buyer rather than from octroi posts. In Mumbai, the buyer has to pay 5.5 per cent of the vehicle price as octroi.

Source: www.indianexpress.com

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The stretch will be a much desired alternative to the JNPT road and will be connected to the Palm Beach road through the Amra Marg. The existing Palm Beach road will be further extended till Airoli after developing an existing stretch of road into a six-lane one. Once done, the entire stretch from Chanje village via the proposed SEZ to Airoli will be connected with a single road link. Also the time taken to travel between the SEZ and Airoli will be considerably cut down by 30 minutes. Presently taking the regular route, it takes around 2 hours. The proposed road, inform Cidco officials will be a six-lane one with 39 m width. As it is adjoining the sea, the Cidco managed to get an environmental clearance from the MoEF last year itself.

The road will be the first one to toe the coastal line of Navi Mumbai on the lines of the one at Marine Drive. The project will cost Rs 64 crore and has been approved by the Board in a meeting held on January 5. The project will be self financed by the Cidco.

The road will be beneficial on three fronts, not only will it help the industrial hubs in that area it will also cater to the proposed residential settlements of PAPs. Moreover it will also reduce the dense traffic congestion on the JNPT road.

When contacted, Bipin Mehta, the additional chief engineer, special projects, Cidco confirmed the project and said that once completed, it will be beneficial for the city. “Currently we have acquired around 5.4 km stretch for developing the road while the rest is yet to be claimed. Also, the acquired stretch of road has loose soil and we need to improve it before starting work,” he informed.

Source: The Times of India

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Mumbai city is facing the worst water crisis in its history and evidently, the issue became a subject of heated debate and discussions in the recently concluded assembly sessions in Nagpur. As a step to combat the water crisis in Mumbai to some level, the state has instructed MCGM to stop water supply to construction sites. NMMC too is following the same directives and has stopped water supply at construction sites for last 15 days. According to NMMC’s Water Dept. Executive Engineer Sanjay Desai, presently NMMC is supplying water to construction sites only for labor camp. This has helped reduce water supply from 5 MLD to 2 MLD. Builders Association of Navi Mumbai’s President Bhupendra Shah says that the decision does not effect majority of the builders as they anyways take supply from water tankers. The Association’s Secretary, M.C. Sunny however opines that they need water of good quality for construction purpose and that’s why NMMC should supply water to their sites, even if it is at commercial rate.

Meanwhile, to implement its ‘Save Water Policy’, NMMC has formed two units that comprises of a Head Plumber with 10 assistants who carry out action drives every morning and evening. In its drive against towers consuming excess water, nearly 1500 towers have already been served notices while 950 individual domestic water users too have been booked. If the violators do not stop the excess water they are using, NMMC would then conduct penal action against them.

So far this aggressive campaign of NMMC has helped save almost 9 MLD water. The corporation is aiming at save up to 10%. However, citizens facing water cuts are protesting against NMMC. Voicing discontent with water supply, residents of some areas in the city informed NMTV News that NMMC begins water supply at 1 in the night till 6 in the morning, which is useless. These citizens are demanding that better the timings of water supply should be made user friendly. Well looking at this, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that NMMC Water Dept. needs to include itself as well in its “Save Water Policy”.

Source: www.nmtv.tv

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