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By:

Minal Sancheti

2 May 2026 at 12:26:53 pm

Tussle between BMC, WR leaves Dadar dry

Mumbai: Dadar is the only railway station in Mumbai that has no authorised water connection. This, as per the sources, is due to an ongoing dispute between the Western Railway and the BMC. The tussle between the BMC and the Western Railway has led to a strange situation. The Western Railway is asking the BMC to pay Rs 338 crore for way leave charges, and the Western Railway has to pay Rs 22 Lakh to the BMC. The tussle has been going on for 12 years and remains unresolved. As per the sources,...

Tussle between BMC, WR leaves Dadar dry

Mumbai: Dadar is the only railway station in Mumbai that has no authorised water connection. This, as per the sources, is due to an ongoing dispute between the Western Railway and the BMC. The tussle between the BMC and the Western Railway has led to a strange situation. The Western Railway is asking the BMC to pay Rs 338 crore for way leave charges, and the Western Railway has to pay Rs 22 Lakh to the BMC. The tussle has been going on for 12 years and remains unresolved. As per the sources, due to this, the BMC has not given any new connections to the Western Railway, which needs the connections because of the increase in the capacity of new coaches. Currently, the Western Railway is facing a water shortage of 20 per cent for train operations. Thus, the water is being filled at the next train stops like Surat and Valsad, or wherever the train halts. The dependency on water tankers has increased because the Western Railway did not have enough water connections from the BMC. This has caused more expenditure for the Western Railway. For Dadar terminus, the Western Railway uses 40 water tankers, each water tanker of the capacity of 10,000 litres, which comes down to four lakh litres of water every day. Around eight water tankers of the capacity of 10,000 litres, which comes down to 80,000 litres of water, are required for Dadar station. In total, the Western Railway incurs expenses on 4,80,000 litres of water every day. BMC PRO Tanaji Kamble has denied that there was no water connection at Dadar Railway Station. “Every station has BMC water connection,” he said. Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of Western Railway Vineet Abhishek said, “All efforts are being taken to ensure there is no inconvenience to our passengers.”

The angry Sainiks

angry Sainiks

When Eknath Shinde split the Shiv Sena in 2022, Ramdas Kadam was one of the most vocal leaders who went with him and even accused Uddhav Thackeray of not valuing the old-timers in the party. In a letter to Thackeray, he had written that while Bal Thackeray had appreciated his work and appointed him as a leader of the party, Uddhav did not follow the same norm and senior party leaders were never taken into confidence. He had even alleged that he and his son Yogesh, an MLA from Dapoli, had been “insulted several times” in the party. Ramdas Kadam is a typical Shiv Sainik, rough and fiery, always gunning for a fight.


He rose within the party in the eighties and nineties when the Shiv Sena was making its mark as a party for the ‘Marathi manoos’, fighting for the rights of the locals. Kadam began his career from Kandivali, a Mumbai suburb, and rose within the party ranks to become a shakha pramukh. In 1990, he was selected to contest the assembly elections from Khed, in Ratnagiri district from where he won. During the Shiv Sena-BJP government’s tenure from 1995 to 1999, Kadam was made minister of state for home and food and civil supplies, underlining his importance within the party. He won the elections for three subsequent terms until 2004. When Narayan Rane, a senior leader from Konkan, quit the Shiv Sena in 2005, Kadam was appointed leader of the opposition in the state legislative assembly during which he played a key role in keeping a check on the government. In 2009, he was defeated by Bhaskar Jadhav but was elected to the legislative council, ensuring his continuity in the legislature. In 2014, when the BJP-Shiv Sena formed the government, Kadam was appointed as the minister for environment and one of the biggest policy decisions he made was to implement a ban on plastic. The ban was subsequently watered down. In 2019, he bowed out of the electoral race, instead, ensuring a nomination from his son Yogesh who successfully contested from Dapoli.


His other son Siddhesh was appointed as the chairman of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board in March this year, sparking allegations of favouritism to pacify Kadam who is apparently miffed with his party. While the position mandates a senior professional with more than two decades of experience, Siddhesh, although a post graduate in Science, was not seen to be eligible for the high position. Yogesh is contesting the state assembly poll from Dapoli for a second term.

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