Mumbai diary: Real estate sector struggling to attract customers

Over 2 lakh new houses unsold

Mumbai’s real estate sector, which has been battling a slump over the last few years, is now struggling to attract customers. According to a recent report, the city has over 2 lakh unsold new houses as there are no buyers. Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) had 2,19,491 unsold new houses at the end of 2018. The number was 2,26,006 at the end of 2017. The MMR saw 59,930 new houses constructed in 2018, while 66,970 houses were sold during the same period, the report released by National Real Estate Development Council has said. 

Cinema museum gets 200 old cameras

The National Museum for Indian Cinema in Mumbai has received a precious collection of over 200 pieces of cameras as well as artifacts. The collection has a few vintage cameras, polaroid cameras, magic lanterns and even a replica of telescope used by astronaut Neel Armstrong during his maiden moon voyage. The collection, which belonged to former bureaucrat K C Nayyar, came as donation to the films division which is currently trying to enhance the museum. A similar collection of costumes from Kolkata is also likely to grace the museum very soon. Shows of rare old films, festivals and workshops for approximation of films, too, are being planned.

Satellite to monitor illegal construction

According to information provided by the Maharashtra government to the high court, a special software is being developed to monitor illegal construction in the Mumbai with the help of satellites. The technology, named as Standard Model Product, is being developed by Maharashtra’s Remote Sensing Application Centre in collaboration with a German firm. After learning about a similar technology being used in Hyderabad, work on this technology began and the state government and BMC officials are being trained to use it.

City with highest car density

According to information released by the transport department of Maharashtra government, Mumbai is now the city with maximum car density in the country. The city has 510 cars for every km of road. In Pune, the number is 359, while Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Delhi have 319, 297, 149 and 108 cars for every kilometre of road, respectively. The high density in the city is due to lack of road space.