Thane: A 30-year-old man suffered serious injuries to his limbs after falling into the gap between the platform and train at Thane station late Tuesday, officials informed Wednesday.The incident, according to the Thane railway police, was reported around 10 pm when the passenger, identified as Purushottam Paswan, a resident of Jharkhand, along with his friend, was attempting to deboard the Indrayani Express that was leaving Platform 6 for Mumbai. Paswan slipped off and fell in the gap and was rescued by fellow passengers, railway and police staff who rushed to the spot.“The victim was initially taken to the Thane Civil Hospital, but considering the severity of his injuries, he was later referred to the Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital (Sion Hospital) in Mumbai for advanced treatment Wednesday morning. We will record the statement of the victim once his condition is stable. We are appealing to commuters to avoid boarding or alighting from moving trains,” said a Thane railway police official.It may be recalled this is the third incident at Thane station alone reported this year. A woman suffered serious injuries after falling in the gap on Feb 23 while she was attempting to board one of the sleeper coaches of Mahanagari Express at Thane. In another instance, a 55-year-old man was killed after slipping between two coaches of a suburban train after a passenger fell in between them apparently while alighting from the train Jan 13.

Mumbai: A unified River Rejuvenation Authority on the lines of National River Conservation Authority will be set up in the state to clean up the four major river basins—Narmada, Tapi, Krishna and Godavari. The state cabinet on Wednesday approved the proposal for its establishment to carry out both regulatory and developmental work to reduce pollution of rivers as well as to conserve and revitalise them.The CM will be the chairman of the authority, while the ministers for finance, urban development, water resources, industry, rural development and panchayati raj will be members. Two panels—an executive committee headed by the environment minister and a secretary-headed committee headed by MPCB’s member- secretary—will oversee implementation. There are 296 polluted river belts across the country, of which 54 are in Maharashtra. The authority will oversee the rejuvenation of rivers from source to sea of all rivers across the state. The cabinet approved raising Rs 2,000 crore through MPCB, which has a corpus of Rs 4,000 crore. The state govt will contribute Rs 100 crore. The cabinet also approved providing 10% of the amount received from minor mineral extraction to the authority every year. Money will also be raised through social responsibility funds received from various companies and mixed financing from various financial institutions. TNN

BENGALURU: A tragic chain of events unfolded in Bengaluru’s Kothanur area, where a techie couple from Telangana died within minutes of each other at their apartment complex, leaving residents and police stunned.Bhanu Chander Reddy Kunta (32), a software engineer from Siddipet, was found hanging inside a locked room at his flat on Monday. According to police, his wife, Shaziya (31), an IBM employee, grew suspicious after he failed to respond despite repeated knocks on the door.Alarmed, she alerted apartment security and neighbours. When the door was eventually forced open, Bhanu was found dead inside the room.Minutes later, Shaziya ran out and jumped from the 17th floor of the same residential building, dying on the spot before anyone could intervene.Police have registered two separate cases of unnatural death based on complaints filed by their families in Telangana.Officials said multiple angles are being examined, including possible health concerns, relationship issues and emotional distress. The exact cause and sequence of events will be clearer after post-mortem reports and further investigation.

Mumbai: The proposed April 3 inauguration of the first phase of Metro Line 9 between Kashigaon and Dahisar, along with the Phase I opening of Metro Line 2B, the bhoomipujan of the BKC pod taxi project and the launch of tunnel-boring machines (TBMs) for the Thane-Borivli tunnel, has been postponed.According to sources, all inaugurations and associated events lined up for April 3 have been cancelled, with revised dates are likely to be announced shortly. The programmes are now expected to be held on April 5 or 6, subject to final confirmation from the state leadership.Sources said senior leaders, who were expected to attend the Mumbai events, are tied up with political meetings in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, leading to the postponement.The 4.5-km Metro 9 stretch between Dahisar and Kashigaon completed trials and key safety clearances. Once opened, commuters from Mira Road will get direct connectivity to Gundavli through seamless integration with Metro Line 7.The first phase includes four stations — Dahisar (East), Pandurang Wadi, Miragaon and Kashigaon — and is expected to significantly improve east-west connectivity for Mira-Bhayandar residents.The event was also slated to include the opening of the Golden Nest flyover, the Rs 1,016-crore pod taxi project in BKC, and the ceremonial TBM launch for the 11.8-km Thane-Borivli twin tunnel, which is expected to cut travel time to around 15 minutes.Officials said the projects are ready, and only the revised schedule is awaited.

Richa.PintoMumbai: After prolonged back-and-forth, the Gargai dam project was cleared by BMC’s standing committee on Wednesday, despite opposition from Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress.While Shiv Sena (UBT) led by corporator Yashodhar Phanse pushed for desalination as an alternative to the dam, Congress argued that the proposal was premature and pointed out that rehabilitation of project-affected persons and tree transplantation has not yet been completed. BJP claimed credit for bringing down the project cost escalation from around 9% to nearly 2% above the estimate. Ganesh Khankar, its leader in BMC, said that there’s no denying that increasing the water quantum the city gets is the need of the day. “But there was also a need to ensure this project is not given highly above estimate. We have managed to do that by referring back the proposal in the past meetings and ensuring the contractor does the work almost on a par,” he said. Ashraf Azmi, Congress’s leader in BMC, contested this, alleging that despite claims of reduction, the project cost has not been effectively brought on a par.The project carries significant environmental implications, including the transplantation of around 3 lakh trees and compensatory afforestation across 658 hectares in Washim, Chandrapur and Hingoli districts. Additionally, villagers are proposed to be relocated to Devali in Wada taluka. Once commissioned, the dam will add 440 million litres a day to Mumbai’s water supply, making it the city’s first new reservoir since Middle Vaitarna became operational in 2014.