Mumbai: Marking a breakthrough, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis flagged off the trial runs on the city’s first fully subterranean Mumbai Metro 3 line. The work on the 33.50 kms long Metro 3 corridor started in 2016 and the first phase is likely to be completed by end-2023. Shinde, Fadnavis and Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) officials waved the green flag for the trial run at Sariputnagar in Aarey Colony temporary car-shed inside a 3 kms tunnel till the Marol Naka Station.Also Read - Mumbai's Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ Metro Line 3 to be Held TodaySpeaking on the occasion, Shinde said that nothing will stop the progress of Mumbai and Maharashtra after the new government took office on June 30, 2022. Fadnavis said that the opposition to the Metro car-shed in Aarey Colony was more political than environment-related and indirectly flayed the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress government for delaying the much-needed project. Also Read - Mumbai: Residents Protest Against Building of Aarey Metro Car Shed in Forest; Aaditya Thackeray Joins inMETRO-3 LINETRIALS VIDEO Also Read - On Camera: Leopard Strays Into Residential Building In Mumbai's Aarey Colony; Netizens Concerned Over Maha Govt's Move To Resume Metro-Car Shed ProjectGET SET GO! LIVE! The first trial train of Mumbai’s first underground Metro rail, Aqua Line 3 @MumbaiMetro3 runs after its flag off. The @AlstomIndia rake will run a 3-km stretch till Marol Naka as a first phase of trials. @mid_day pic.twitter.com/bQHBgYlMBA— Rajendra B. Aklekar (@rajtoday) August 30, 2022After coming to power two months ago, the Shinde-Fadnavis government spiked the MVA’s move and restored the car-shed location from Kanjurmarg back to Aarey Forest, attracting howls of protests from the Sena-NCP-Congress and environmentalists.The delays have led to a cost escalation from the original estimates of Rs 23,000-crore to now around Rs 37,000-crore, and the complete project is now slated for completion only by mid-2025.
MUMBAI: The much-awaited trial runs of the prototype rake for Metro 3 (Colaba-Bandra-Seepz) are scheduled to commence on a 3km stretch from today. The trial run will commence in the presence of chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis at 11am from Sariput Nagar in Aarey. The prototype rake had arrived in two batches of four coaches. The initial design-proving trial runs of the prototype train of about 2,000km will be conducted in a 3km tunnel from the temporary facility to Marol Naka station. Speed, oscillation and emergency brake distance trials will be conducted, along with testing of some other systems. The dispatch of the second train from Sri City will be decided later, based on the outcome of the trial runs with the first prototype train. Even though the prototype rake was ready, its delivery was held up because of uncertainty over the issue of depot as the previous government wanted to shift it to Kanjurmarg. The approvals for dispatch of first prototype rake and trials came as soon as the Eknath Shinde government came to power after Uddhav Thackeray resigned from the chief minister's post. Thackeray was opposed to the depot coming up at Aarey but the new government's first decision was lift the stay on the depot work at Aarey. The manufacturing of 31 train sets of eight coaches for the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) underground corridor has commenced at the Alstom factory in Sri City. The MMRCL is going to begin the operations for Phase I with nine rakes, for which facilities will be made ready by April. In July, the depot will be able to handle operations for the entire corridor even though some other works may continue. For Phase I almost all the facilities will be ready except the Operational Control Centre (OCC) at the Aarey depot site. This will not be a hurdle as there is a provision for Back-up Control Centre (BCC) at the BKC station. The MMRCL expressed confidence that nearly all works for the Phase I corridor will be completed by June.
MUMBAI: After nine consecutive days of zero Covid-19 deaths, the city recorded a single fatality on Sunday. Cases in the state and city, though, continued to slide. Maharashtra reported 362 cases, its lowest in 686 days (since April 18, 2020), taking the overall count of cases to 78,68,813. Mumbai too reported cases below 50 for the first time since April 2020 when the pandemic had just begun. On Sunday, the city recorded 43 fresh cases, taking the cumulative count of cases to 10,55,997. Mumbai metro region reported only 81 positive cases with testing numbers dropping drastically. The sole death in the city was of a senior citizen who had co-morbidities. On Sunday, merely five people got hospitalised for Covid-19, civic officials said. The state saw three deaths, taking the total casualty count to 1,43,740. BMC chief IS Chahal said the city’s daily positivity rate is down to 0.2% — lowest since March 2020.
Pune: The Pune Metropolitan Region reported zero Covid-19 deaths on Sunday. A total of 163 new cases were recorded and progressive count of patients in the region is now 14,52,017. There were also 242 new recoveries. The total number of discharged patients is now 14,31,103. According to official data, the toll is at 19,682.The PMC areas on Sunday had 99 new cases, the PCMC recorded 22 and the rural administration registered 23 new patients. As for recoveries, they were the highest in PMC limits with as many as 129 patients discharged. The PCMC had 48 recovered patients and the rural administration recorded 50 discharges. According to the daily Covid-19 report from the district administration, active cases remain below 1,500 in the PMR. Out of an estimated 1,239 active cases, as many as 134 infected people were in isolation while 1,105 patients were in home quarantine.According to death reports, underlying health conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, breathing issues and heart problems had caused serious complications in patients.Overall, Maharashtra onSunday reported 362 cases, its lowest in 686 days (since April 18, 2020), taking the overall count of cases to 78,68,813. Cases are on the decline, but health experts have urged citizens to continue taking precautions.
MUMBAI: Maharashtra on Saturday reported 535 new coronavirus infections, taking the caseload to 78,68,451. With 10 persons succumbing to the viral infection, death toll reached 1,43,737, the state health department said. As many as 963 patients were discharged from hospital or recovered at home, taking the recovery tally to 77,16,674. With 76,375 samples being tested during the day, the total of Covid-19 tests carried out so far reached 7,82,14,557. As many as 454 cases of Omicron variant infection were reported from Nagpur. To date, 5,665 Omicron variant patients have been detected in the state, of which 4,733 have recovered. The recovery rate in the state is 98.07 per cent and case fatality rate is 1.82 percent. There are 4,038 active cases in Maharashtra now. Mumbai city reported 65 new cases and no deaths. The caseload of the financial capital of the country stands at 10,55,954 and death toll at 16,691. Among eight administrative divisions (each division comprising several districts), Mumbai division reported 110 coronavirus cases and seven deaths on Saturday. Nashik division reported 78 cases and two deaths, Pune division 238 cases, Kolhapur division 21 cases, Aurangabad division 19 cases, Latur division 21 cases, Akola division 28 cases and Nagpur division 20 cases and one death. Maharashtra's coronavirus figures are as follows: New cases 535, Total cases: 78,68,451, Deaths 10, Total Deaths 1,43,737, Total Recoveries 77,16,674, Active cases 4,038, Total tests 7,82,14,557, Tests today 76,375.
PUNE: Several districts have been recording zero Covid cases intermittently over the last many days and may soon become infection-free, at least for a while, state surveillance officer Dr Pradeep Awate told TOI on Thursday. Key districts that haven't had any new cases on some days are Dhule, Jalna, Latur, Hingoli, Gondia and Jalgaon. Dr Awate said the end of the third wave is likely to see a longer list of zero-caseload districts than the second wave's final weeks as active cases in Maharashtra are currently at the lowest since Covid started two years ago. The state is also reporting fewer than 500 new cases every day - a steeper drop than all previous waves. Dr Awate said, "Just like how no Covid death was reported in Maharashtra on Wednesday, for the first time since April 2020, it's possible some districts may record zero cases for some days as the state's daily positivity rate has been at 1% or less lately." He, however, added that it's unlikely these districts will see long infection-free spells as inter-district movement may lead to sporadic cases. Last year, districts such as Nandurbar, Bhandara and Wardha had seen zero active cases for several days. Districts that have touched single-digit caseloads have also reported drops in testing, but officials said that's only due to an overall reduction in disease burden. Jalna district health officer (DHO) Dr Vivek Khatgaonkar said, "Cases have been falling in both instances, when we had an average of 2,000 daily tests and when we had about 500 to 1,000 daily tests. When disease burden eases, there's an automatic drop in testing as fewer people fall sick and take a test. Despite hundreds of tests over the last few days, Jalna has four active cases currently." Dhule DHO Dr Santosh Navale said the region is still conducting 800 to 900 tests. He said, "The fall in cases is not due to less testing. Disease burden has significantly reduced because in the last eight days, we have started reporting daily cases in the range of just 0 to two."
MUMBAI: In an indication of the rapidly declining third wave, only six Covid patients needed hospitalisation in Mumbai on Friday. The city registered 78 cases and, for the eighth consecutive day, zero deaths. In the state, daily cases rose slightly to 525 even as deaths dropped to a single digit (9) on Friday as against 12 on Thursday. Dr Rahul Pandit, who is a member of the state government's task force on Covid-19, said there have been no new Covid admissions in his ICU on Friday. Only 628 (1.8%) of the 35,823 Covid beds in the city are occupied, according to the BMC update. "Things are good, but instead of relaxing we need to get back to the basics,” said Dr Pandit.
Mumbai recorded 100 new cases while the addition to the tally in Pune city was 69. (FILE)Mumbai: Maharashtra on Wednesday reported 544 COVID-19 cases, including 38 caused by the Omicron variant, taking the overall tally of infections to 78,66,924, while the death count emained unchanged at 1,43,706, a health department official said.He said 37 Omicron cases were reported from Pune and one from Aurangabad, which increased the count of infections due to the new variant to 4,771, of which 4,629 have already been discharged.The official said 9,382 samples were sent for genome sequencing, and results of 8,480 have arrived while that of 902 are awaited.A state health department bulletin said 1,007 people were discharged in the last 24 hours, taking the recovery count to 77,13,575, leaving the state with 5,643 active cases.It said Mumbai recorded 100 new cases while the addition to the tally in Pune city was 69.Of the eight administrative circles, Pune region recorded 194 cases, Nashik 99, Akola and Nagpur 28 each, Kolhapur 15, Latur eight and Aurangabad nine.It said 1,53,349 samples were examined in the last 24 hours, taking the overall number of cases in the state to 7,80,03,848.PromotedListen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.comThe health bulletin said 45,422 people are in home isolation and 660 in institutional quarantine in the state a present.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
