Sizzling stars Gondhal 2006

Sizzling stars Gondhal 2006

ATHAVANITLYA KAVITA- sangata sohala,RUIA COLLEGE

ATHAVANITLYA KAVITA- sangata sohala,RUIA COLLEGE

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New fifth and sixth railway line being laid between Thane, Kalwa and Diva stations

If you travel on the central line of the Mumbai suburban network, chances are you may have to prepare for a few delays, scheduled changes and even rocks flying at you. The Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) will be carrying out tunnel boring work as part of the new fifth and sixth line being laid between Thane, Kalwa and Diva stations.

The old tunnel and the new one being constructed near Nutan Bungalow,  near Thane creek.

According to sources in the department, train services maybe stalled for a brief period to avoid danger to passengers, as the work will involve blasting of rocks near the tunnel. The blasting will be carried out between April 1 and May 31 and the authorities plan to do it in 15-minute phases, one every morning and afternoon during that period.

“We will be undertaking this work between 11.35 am and 11.50 am, and 3 pm and 3.15 pm during which we will be blasting rocks near the tunnel,” said an MRVC official. The Central Railway is also making changes to the train schedule during the 60-day period. Slow and semi-fast train services from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) to Kalyan and Titwala will be diverted on the fast lines between Mulund and Diva during morning and afternoon hours.

Trains starting from Titwala, Kalyan, Badlapur and Ambernath to CST will also be diverted to the fast lines. Two train services will be terminated at Kurla and sentback to CST, which otherwise go all the way to Dombivli. In an attempt to reassure commuters, V Malegaonkar, chief PRO, Central Railway (CR) said, “The train services wouldn’t be affected much due to this work.”

Work continues at the Kalva-end of the tunnel. Officials say they will be blasting rocks near the tunnel in 15-minute phases each day from April 1 to May 31. Pics/Shrikant Khuperkar

The officials added that the blast work would be carried out at both ends of the 250-metrelong tunnel and added that this is the final leg of the tunnel-boring activity as major part of the tunnel through which tracks will pass has already been bored.
The two additional railway lines - fifth and sixth - would help cut down on congestion of rail traffic during peak hours. These will also accommodate new mail and suburban trains. After the new lines are ready for use, the current fast line that skips stations such as Kalwa and Mumbra, can be utilised by mail express and long distance trains.
Officials claim that even after the tunnelling work is over, the project of adding fifth and sixth lines will complete only after a year. Recently, the Environment ministry allowed MRVC to use 3.2 hectares reserved forestland for construction of railway lines between Thane and Diva.
250 m
The length of the tunnel
Rs 6.9 cr
Cost of drilling the tunnel
Rs 89.87 cr
Cost of constructing the 5th and 6th lines

Drought to dhandha Mumbai’s new sex workers are Marathi speaking women from drought-hit areas

Purnima Ahire speaks haltingly in English with a pronounced Marathi accent, an attempt that draws a round of laughter from the women huddled in a lane near Ashok Talkies outside Thane station. “Kai English madam dhandha karayla aali ka kai (An English madam has come for sex work)?” says one of them, setting off the others again. The 21-year-old from Umerga, Osmanabad, clams up. Her mentor Renuka Varahade, 34, puts an arm around her and tells her to ignore them. “Many who come for dhandha can’t even write or speak decent Marathi. Purnima has studied till Class 11, so they are envious,” she says. Purinima’s sister’s wedding two years ago put her father in debt. Unable to withstand pressure from the local money lender after his crop failed, he drank a bottle of pesticide in January. Besides her mother, Purnima now has to support her sister and brother, so she decided to find work. “Renukatai knew my mother. She told her I’d find work as a domestic help in Aurangabad. Once I found out the nature of the work, I called home to tell mother. She cried, but said I must cope to help the family,” says a blank-faced Purnima, whose family thinks she works as a maid. “If I keep crying, will that feed my family? Here Tai protects me and I get to send money home,” says Purnima. Brothel-keeper Pushpa Malepu admits that new arrivals from drought-hit parts of Maharashtra have increased: “Earlier they came from poor families, but now even educated girls from families who have lost everything to crop failure in the last 2-3 years are taking to the sex trade.” The profile of Mumbai’s sex workers is changing. At one time, 75% of sex workers in the city were from Nepal. Traffickers then shifted focus to Bangladesh where regular floods and poverty ensured new recruits. There came a point when one in every three sex workers in Mumbai was Bangladeshi. Activists in Mumbai, Pune and Nashik admit that more educated Marathi-speaking girls are being pushed into the sex trade. This is like the situation following the drought of 1972, when 70% girls in the trade were from Maharashtra (Marathwada), Karnataka (Raichur-Gulbarga), and Andhra Pradesh (Rayalseema) — areas worst hit by drought. “Now, there are more Marathi-speaking girls being pushed into the trade,” says Pravin Patkar, founder-chairman of Prerana, an organisation working with sex workers since 1986. Patkar says the first signs of distress were seen last during Diwali, when sex workers started migrating to Mumbai from the drought-hit belts of Vidarbha and Marathwada: “With the overall drop in purchasing power, work became scarce, forcing them here. This shows the levels of distress. Unless interventions are put in place, the number of new recruits from these regions could rise rapidly.” Indu Bhalerao, 36, is one such sex worker. She left Latur for Mumbai last September because of the lack of clients. “Here I can at least have food. In Latur, I didn’t have enough to provide for my family in my village, and was going hungry myself.” Bharti Lad is a 23-year-old from Jalna district of Maharashtra. “Our family owned a sugarcane field which was divided after a family dispute. My father lost his share as he ran up huge debts paying off lawyers two years ago. We started working as labourers. Now, since there’s no water, there’s no work. We even had to sell the cow to the butchers,” she says in chaste Marathi. Bharti lives in a flat in Malad. “Regular customers mean I have enough to send at least Rs5,000 back home every month.” The women waiting outside closed shop-fronts near Ashok Talkies are hungry and settle for a quick meal of bhurji-pao. “After 11pm, the police come... To avoid lafda (trouble), many of us head home,” says Purnima, who cannot resist checking herself in a broken mirror on the bhurji pao cart. Renukatai hails an auto to take them to their hovel at the base of Parsik Hill at Kalwa (East), where two more girls stay. It’s past 11.30pm and the autowallah tries to get fresh. “Same place?” he leers in the rear-view mirror, eliciting a quick retort from the feisty Renuka, who spits out gutka and asks him: “Where else? Do you want to take us home to meet your mother?”