Mumbai: Although the State Wildlife Board has already granted its approval, the BMC is still awaiting clearances from the National Wildlife Board and the Forest Department for the Gargai Dam project.

To accelerate the approval process, Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Waikar, in a meeting held at the K-East Ward office on Wednesday, urged the BMC to prepare a detailed proposal and forward it to the central government through the state government.

Despite the seven lakes supplying water to the city are full to their capacity, complaints have been received about low water pressure in areas such as Dindoshi, Goregaon, Jogeshwari, Versova and Andheri.

Acting on these concerns, MP Waikar convened a meeting on water supply issues to identify the underlying causes and ensure a smooth water supply.

The meeting was attended by civic officials, including engineers from the Hydraulic Engineering Department and other civic officials.

“Considering the growing population, water supply planning needs to be strengthened. To expedite the Gargai Dam project, a proposal for the pending clearances should be submitted to the central government through the state authorities,” said Waikar.

He also directed civic officials that all unauthorised water connections be removed and replaced with official pipelines to ensure proper and equitable distribution.

Mumbai currently receives approximately 4,000 million litres per day (MLD) of drinking water from seven lakes that supply the city. However, it still faces a shortfall of about 500 MLD. The proposed Gargai Dam, which will span 844 hectares—including 658 hectares of forest land within the Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary—is expected to boost the city’s daily water supply by 440 MLD.

As part of the project, a one-kilometre-long tunnel will be constructed to connect the Gargai Dam to the Modak Sagar Dam, located to its south, which is one of the existing sources supplying water to Mumbai. The project is estimated to cost Rs 3,105 crore, with the BMC allocating Rs 35.51 crore for it in the 2025–26 financial year.

Mumbai: Mumbai residents began their Thursday morning under a cloudy, haze-filled sky with a thin layer of fog reported in some areas. The India Meteorological Department (IMD), which had earlier issued a yellow alert for Mumbai and nearby districts until Wednesday, has not issued any rain warning for today. However, the forecast indicates a partly cloudy sky with one or two spells of rain or thundershowers likely through the day.

Meanwhile, IMD’s nowcast warning issued at 7:20 am today stated that light to moderate spells of rain are ‘very likely’ to occur over Mumbai City, Mumbai Suburban, Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Ratnagiri, Pune, Nashik, Satara and Nanded districts in the next three hours.

According to IMD’s latest update, Mumbai’s maximum temperature is expected to hover around 33°C, while the minimum may dip to 25°C. The brief showers earlier in the week provided much-needed respite from rising heat and improved the city’s air quality, which had deteriorated significantly over the past few weeks due to stagnant wind conditions and increasing pollution levels.

Real-time data from AQI.in showed that Mumbai’s Air Quality Index (AQI) on Thursday morning stood at 56, placing it in the moderate category, a notable improvement from the unhealthy levels recorded earlier this month. The change was visible across the skyline, with thinner haze and clearer visibility over most parts of the city.

Among various monitoring stations, Wadala Truck Terminal recorded the highest AQI at 70, followed by Jogeshwari (68), Santacruz East (68), Parel-Bhoiwada (65) and Chembur (65), all in the moderate category. On the brighter side, several neighbourhoods reported good air quality. These included Kandivali East (47), Borivali East (48), Bhandup West (48), Malad West (48) and Powai (50), each recording cleaner, breathable air.

As per AQI.in’s classification, readings between 0–50 denote “Good” air quality, 51–100 indicate “Moderate,” 101–150 “Poor,” 151–200 “Unhealthy,” while anything above 200 is considered “Severe” or “Hazardous.”

While no heavy rainfall is expected, the weather bureau’s advisory suggests that the city may continue to experience brief drizzles and cloudy conditions through the day, a soothing change for Mumbaikars after unseasonal heavy rain showers since past week.

Kolkata, Oct 29: A 60-year old man, Khairul Sheikh, a resident of Dinhata in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, allegedly tried to commit suicide by consuming poison on Wednesday reportedly out of the fear of getting his name deleted from the voters’ list following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state, the groundwork for which will start from November 4.

His family members have told the police and the media persons that, although the name of Sheikh was in the voters’ list of 2002, the year when the SIR was conducted in West Bengal for the last time, the spelling of his name was incorrect in that list.

According to Shaikh’s family members, he was scared that because of the mistake in the spelling of his name in the 2002 list, his name might be deleted from the voters’ list.

Confirming the development, the new District Police Superintendent, Sandip Karra, told media persons that as per the versions of Sheikh’s family members since the SIR was announced for West Bengal by the ECI earlier this week, he started panicking.

“The police have started an investigation into the matter. He is currently under treatment. We will investigate him after he recovers and get to know from him the reasons behind his act,” Karra said.

Trinamool Congress’ Cooch Behar district president, Avijit Dey, said that the incident is proof of what kind of panic is there among the common people over the SIR.

“What I heard is that some people told Sheikh that because of the mistake in the spelling of his name in the 2022 list, his name will be deleted from the voters’ list following the fresh SIR, and he will also be deported to Bangladesh. Out that fear he tried to commit suicide,” Dey added.

The BJP legislator from Cooch Behar (Uttar) constituency, Sukumar Roy, said that even if the fear factor prompted Sheikh to attempt suicide, Trinamool Congress is responsible for that since the party is responsible for spreading a false sense of fear among people about the SIR.

On Tuesday, a 57-year-old man, identified as Pradeep Kar, committed suicide at Panihati in North 24 Parganas district, reportedly out of fear of being affected by a possible National Register of Citizens (NRC) in West Bengal.

BJP had already raised doubts about whether the suicide note recovered from near his body was actually written by the deceased person and also demanded a proper investigation into the actual reason behind the suicide.

On Tuesday, both the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Congress’s General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee accused the BJP and the Union government of spreading a sense of fear and division by using NRC as a tool, where people are often made to doubt their own right to existence, the reflection of which was felt in the suicide of Kar.

Since the beginning, Trinamool Congress leadership had been describing the SIR as an indirect ploy by the BJP and the Union government to impose the NRC in West Bengal.