Mumbai: Viket alias Rahul Yadav (27), one of the deceased in the Ghatkopar landslide tragedy, would have turned a year older on Wednesday, but it ended up being the last day of his life. Viket was among the eldest of his three siblings.His mother Chhaya, a homemaker, said, “His brothers had brought him gifts for his birthday. Late on Tuesday, he went into one of the rooms to bring in his birthday with his friends. He stepped out of the room briefly as he was unable to get internet connection inside and that was exactly when the incident took place with the large boulders coming down and crashing on him.” His younger brothers, Rohit (24) and Yogesh (21), were at Rajawadi hospital making arrangements for their brother’s funeral amid a stream of tears.“I can’t believe my brother is no more. We had plans to celebrate his birthday and today we are coming together for something we would have never expected,” said Rohit. His cousin, Shubam Bansode, said Rahul’s father had passed away when they were children and since then their mother had raised them. Rahul did odd jobs to financially support his mother.Residents of Ashok Nagar said the locality is more than five decades old and has witnessed landslides in the past as well. However, Wednesday’s incident was the first time that the area had seen a tragedy of such magnitude, leaving residents shaken and raising fresh concerns over the safety of families living along the vulnerable hillside.Adam Shaikh, a resident, said locals had been demanding a protective wall around the hillock as rocks frequently fell from it. “We had been telling the authorities to erect a wall around the hillock as pieces of rock keep falling. A tree had grown on the rocks and when it fell, it brought down a huge portion of the rocks, which appears to have triggered Wednesday’s accident,” he said.BMC has made arrangements for temporary accommodation of affected residents at the municipal Hindi School in Kajupada and Mohili School on Andheri-Ghatkopar Link Road. Additional municipal commissioner Avinash Dhakane said that it was impossible to take any kind of machinery into the disaster site and therefore all operations, whether rescue or clearing the huge debris, had to be done manually.

Mumbai: Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) has decided to fast-track the procurement of 238 AC local train rakes by getting them manufactured simultaneously at three existing Indian Railways production units, instead of pursuing a tender route that could have delayed deliveries by several years.The Rs 21,646-crore tender, floated in Sept 2025 under Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP)-3 and MUTP-3A, also covered associated maintenance facilities. Of the 238, 47 rakes were planned under MUTP-3 and 191 under MUTP-3A.Under the original plan, the 47 MUTP-3 AC locals were expected to start arriving in 2021-22 and the 191 under MUTP-3A from 2023-24. But repeated delays in finalising the tender pushed the programme further off schedule. Prospective bidders indicated that they would require about three years to commence series production as they would have to first establish manufacturing facilities, making the first set of deliveries likely possible only by 2033-34.On social media, railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “…The previous procurement model was facing major hurdles, stretching the timeline… That is unacceptable to us. We have now decided to alter the approach…”The tendering process has now been dropped, with MRVC opting to use existing railway manufacturing facilities to accelerate production. The 238 rakes will be manufactured simultaneously at Integral Coach Factory, Chennai; Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala; and Modern Coach Factory, Raebareli.The parallel manufacturing strategy is expected to bring forward the delivery schedule substantially, with the first AC rake targeted for 2027 and the entire fleet expected to be received by 2030.The decision comes as Mumbai’s suburban railway network undergoes a major capacity expansion. Around Rs 22,000 crore is being invested in projects involving new corridors, additional railway lines, extension of platforms to accommodate 15-coach trains and yard remodelling. Several capacity augmentation works under MUTP-2 and MUTP-3 are expected to be completed by 2029.MRVC CMD Vilas Wadekar said the revised approach was aimed at aligning the induction of AC rakes with the commissioning of new corridors, additional lines and other capacity augmentation works. “Mumbai local is not merely a mode of transport; it is the lifeline of Mumbai and an integral part of the city’s everyday life,” Wadekar said.

Mumbai: Four Domino’s outlets across the state, including three in Mumbai, had their food licences suspended on Wednesday as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began inspections of chain outlets.A total of 104 checks were carried out at prominent food chains, and outlets such as Starbucks, McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Subway, Burger King, and Monginis were inspected. Of these, two received a ‘stop business’ notice, served when a food establishment is operating without a valid licence. A total of 95 outlets were served improvement notices, and five food business licences were suspended.In Mumbai, inspectors suspended the licences of three Domino’s branches located in Vile Parle West, Borivli West, and Ghatkopar’s R-City Mall. These outlets had severe lapses, such as active pest infestations, dirty kitchen floors and backdoors, lack of proper temperature monitoring for frozen foods, and missing records for water testing and employee hygiene facilities.A Karad outlet operated by Sapphire Foods India Ltd, which operates KFC and Taco Bell, also had its licence suspended. Along with Domino’s Malkapur unit in Satara district, these branches faced action for poor compliance and hygiene issues, as well as for keeping condiments like sauces, chili flakes, and oregano with missing expiry dates.The statewide drive also included the inspection of 120 hotels, restaurants, and dhabas, resulting in 54 improvement notices and 11 additional licence suspensions. The licences of two dhabas in Bhandup — Gulsan Da Punjabi Dhaba and Mumbai Metro Dhaba — were suspended over severe hygiene violations as well as foul water, inadequate ventilation, and lack of pest control.Authorities additionally seized stocks of substandard milk and dairy products, loose edible oils, and banned items like gutka and pan masala.

Mumbai: With just five days left to submit enumeration forms for the special intensive revision, as many as 1.8 crore voters in the state and 30 lakh in Mumbai have not been traced so far. It means their names could be deleted from the draft electoral roll.This accounts for 29.6% of the voters in Mumbai and 18.4% in the state. Their enumeration forms are classified as “uncollected” and they are now on the list of absent, shifted, dead or duplicate (ASDD) voters.To give these untraced electors a chance, chief electoral officer S Chockalingam said that the list of ASDD voters has been published on district websites since Wednesday. “The public and political parties can check the names and report if the voter has been traced,” he said.He said that the untraced voters in the state were within the 13% to 20% range in the SIR across the country. And that a higher proportion of uncollected forms in urban areas was the norm owing to migration and shifting of residences within the city. “In Bengaluru, the uncollected forms were around 50% while in Chennai it was around 25% of the total voters,” said Chockalingam.Around 36 lakh voters, or 3.7%, in the state are yet to be categorised ,which means the proportion of uncollected forms could change.When asked if the untraced voters will be deleted, Chockalingam said, “We cannot say they will be left out. It means they were not present in the first place.”Within Mumbai, untraced voters were highest in the Sion-Koliwada assembly constituency (43.2%), which has a large slum population. This was followed by Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar (42.2%), which has a large section of Muslims and slum-dwellers. Then came Worli (40.4%), which has multiple high-rises and a chunk of both Marathi and cosmopolitan voters.Uncollected forms were also high in the wealthy constituency of Malabar Hill (39.8%) as well as Mumbadevi (39.3%), which has a large segment of buildings undergoing redevelopment.“It has been difficult to trace voters in Mumbadevi because of redevelopment since many have shifted out to other areas. Also, the state’s booth level officers were not effective in reaching the voters,” said Mumbadevi MLA Amin Patel from the Congress.The draft voter list will be published on August 24 and suggestions and objections will be invited till September 23. “After the draft list is published, voters can make changes in their names and addresses. People can apply to be added to or deleted from the voter list. And 18-year-olds can register to vote,” said Chockalingam.From August 24 to October 22, the election authorities can send notices to those on the draft roll for documents needed. This will apply to those whose names were not mapped to the 2002 voter list. The final voter list after the SIR will be published on October 27.

Mumbai: Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) has decided to fast-track the procurement of 238 AC local train rakes by getting them manufactured simultaneously at three existing Indian Railways production units, instead of pursuing a tender route that could have delayed deliveries by several years.The Rs 21,646-crore tender, floated in Sept 2025 under Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP)-3 and MUTP-3A, also covered associated maintenance facilities. Of the 238, 47 rakes were planned under MUTP-3 and 191 under MUTP-3A.Under the original plan, the 47 MUTP-3 AC locals were expected to start arriving in 2021-22 and the 191 under MUTP-3A from 2023-24. But repeated delays in finalising the tender pushed the programme further off schedule. Prospective bidders indicated that they would require about three years to commence series production as they would have to first establish manufacturing facilities, making the first set of deliveries likely possible only by 2033-34.On social media, railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “…The previous procurement model was facing major hurdles, stretching the timeline… That is unacceptable to us. We have now decided to alter the approach…”The tendering process has now been dropped, with MRVC opting to use existing railway manufacturing facilities to accelerate production. The 238 rakes will be manufactured simultaneously at Integral Coach Factory, Chennai; Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala; and Modern Coach Factory, Raebareli.The parallel manufacturing strategy is expected to bring forward the delivery schedule substantially, with the first AC rake targeted for 2027 and the entire fleet expected to be received by 2030.The decision comes as Mumbai’s suburban railway network undergoes a major capacity expansion. Around Rs 22,000 crore is being invested in projects involving new corridors, additional railway lines, extension of platforms to accommodate 15-coach trains and yard remodelling. Several capacity augmentation works under MUTP-2 and MUTP-3 are expected to be completed by 2029.MRVC CMD Vilas Wadekar said the revised approach was aimed at aligning the induction of AC rakes with the commissioning of new corridors, additional lines and other capacity augmentation works. “Mumbai local is not merely a mode of transport; it is the lifeline of Mumbai and an integral part of the city’s everyday life,” Wadekar said.