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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.”

Tourism Key to Growth

Updated: Nov 18, 2024

Tourism

The Maharashtra government recently came out with a much anticipated comprehensive tourism policy. During the inception of this policy the government virtually gave a huge flip to the concept of ‘workcation’ alongside the promotion of rural life, films, caravans, and medical tourism. The policy, which aims to attract RS 100,000 crore in investment and generate 1.8 million jobs over the next decade. Drawing inspiration from the COVID-19 pandemic, when many embraced remote work in non-urban settings, the policy promoted the concept of ‘workcation’ — a blend of work and vacation. The concept emerged during the COVID-19 lockdown when people, especially from the IT sector, set up camp at vacation destinations while continuing to work for their respective organisations.


This new policy identifies key areas to boost tourism’s contribution to Maharashtra’s goal of becoming a Rs 1 trillion economy by 2028. It focuses on developing robust infrastructure and partnering with various stakeholders, including tour operators and MICE (meetings, incentives, conference, exhibition) organisers, to double revenue generation in their respective sectors. The policy categorises tourism projects into A, B, and C tiers based on size, offering incentives such as GST waivers, electricity rate concessions, and stamp duty reductions. It also proposes cash prizes for innovative products and revival of cultural and artistic customs.


This time around the thrust of the policy is on agriculture, caravan, and adventure tourism. Some of the projects will receive incentives including up to Rs 10 lakh for commendable research work. Rural development is a key focus, with plans to promote local culture, art, cuisine, and festivals. Rural tourism and homestays will be part of the promotion. Following the Mumbai Festival model, other key cities like Nagpur will organise their own festivals, in addition to plans for monsoon and Ganesh festivals to boost tourism.


Prior to this during the tenure of Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government then tourism Minister Aditya Thackeray mooted a new tourism policy. This particular policy came into existence in the post-pandemic era which concentrated on adventure sports. That policy included encouraging adventurous activities like hiking, trekking, cycling and others with emphasis on safety and security, and hence unscrupulous operators would not be permitted. However, these guidelines were not applicable to competitive expeditions or other jungle activities. This particular policy had a plan to showcase the rich natural offerings in the state for adventurous exploits of the brave and daring. The state had offered dense forests, mountain ranges of the Western Ghats, rivers, lakes, beaches on the coastal Konkan, etc, with immense potential for air, land and water adventure tourism activities which is not only a growing segment but much in demand globally.


The policy envisages providing special assistance to different organisations, associations and individuals engaged in or organising adventures sports and related activities, registration, regulation, strict monitoring, training, providing necessary infrastructure, and promotions.

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