Mumbai News Live Updates: 5 BEST bus depots to be redeveloped into world-class facilities

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of World Bank group, will be assisting BEST in Mumbai to redevelop five of its bus depots into world class facilities on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, announced general manager Lokesh Chandra on Wednesday.This will improve non-fare revenue by optimum utilisation of land, he said. As per the project planned, the five depots which will be revamped in the city include the ones at Dindoshi, Ghatkopar, Wadala, Deonar and Anik-Pratikshanagar.

The BMC has proposed to install 23 vertical floodgates along the 18 km-long Mithi river, which flows from Vihar lake to Mahim creek via Andheri, Kurla and Bandra, to prevent seawater from inundating inland areas during heavy rainfall. The project will cost Rs 2,000 crore.

In what may come as a relief to Mumbaikars from heat and humidity, as Mumbai approaches June 11 -the official onset date of the south-west monsoon-independent and private meteorologists suggest the city can expect pre-monsoon thundershowers in the coming week.Meanwhile, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has not made an official statement yet on this year's monsoon arrival date, as it is awaiting the onset of rains over Kerala first. South-west monsoon normally sets in over Kerala around June 1. This year, though, IMD has said monsoon is likely to arrive in Kerala by June 4 with a model error of four days.

The 24-hour advance purchase domestic airfares on certain routes, especially out of Delhi, are in shock-and-awe mode. Passengers checking for tickets on Wednesday to fly from Delhi to Mumbai the next day found the cheapest option was Rs 19,000 for a one-way, non-stop flight. The Delhi-Dubai fare on June 1 was cheaper at Rs 14,000.

The peak electricity demand in the city touched an all-time high of 3,968 megawatts on Wednesday afternoon, which was followed by power cuts in a few parts of the island city, including Sion, and an outage in some areas along the Vile Parle-Andheri-Goregaon belt where supply disruption lasted nearly two hours in late afternoon. Parts of the eastern suburbs, including Vikhroli and Powai, faced outages in the evening.