Maharashtra News LIVE Updates: Court extends judicial custody Sanjay Raut by 14 more days

The byelection to the Andheri East Assembly constituency in Mumbai scheduled on Thursday is a mere formality following the withdrawal of the BJP's candidate from the fray last month. Rutuja Latke, the nominee of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction, is expected to register a comfortable win. She is pitted against six candidates- four of them Independents. The NCP and Congress have supported her candidature. The bypoll was necessitated due to death of Rutuja Latke's husband and Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke in May this year.

Akasa Air on Wednesday announced the addition of Pune to its network with direct connectivity from Bengaluru starting November 23. Pune is the ninth destination in Akasa Air’s network and its second city in Maharashtra after Mumbai. The newly commencing double daily flights on the Bengaluru-Pune route start with its first frequency on November 23 and the second frequency will be added from November 26 onwards.

The Maharashtra government is planning to set up a new prison and seven new police stations in Mumbai, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said. A discussion on the requirement of new jails in state capital Mumbai, Nagpur and Pune was held with officials of the police department on Tuesday, Fadnavis tweeted after the meeting. At present, there is only one Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai.

Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had on the floor of the state assembly in August this year announced that an inquiry would be conducted into complaints of alleged irregularities in the almost Rs 4,000 crore Bhendi Bazaar redevelopment project, including the decrease in width of roads. Within two days of the announcement, BMC administrator Iqbal Chahal had stayed the project. It took the state government nearly two months to order the inquiry. Chahal had directed the probe committee to submit its report within seven days. The inquiry panel headed by deputy chief engineer Sunil Rathod visited the site on October 20 and also verified the various permissions granted by a high-power committee and the civic building proposal department.

Maharashtra's Thane district has reported 29 new cases of coronavirus, taking its infection count to 7,46,762, a health official said on Wednesday. With the addition of the latest cases on Tuesday, there are currently 298 active Covid-19 cases in the district, which comes under the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, he said.

Maharashtra on Tuesday recorded 257 fresh coronavirus cases, one fatality, and 178 recoveries, the state health department said. The lone fatality was reported in Mumbai after a gap of 18 days.