mid-day ASK THE GOVT: Mumbai's autorickshaws refuse to stop

ProblemsDefunct MTNL boardPICNK JainThis picture of a defunct distribution board visible on the footpaths of Mumbai represents the true condition and status of MTNL in Mumbai Such a box stands right below the newly built swanky metro station at Shivaji Chowk Chembur At least MMRDA should have had enough proactiveness to contact MTNL and remove such diapilated and dead boxes before inaugurating the new Metro Line 2B It is a hazard to the passengers of Metro who could bump into this after coming out of the station and hurt themselvesNK JainAuto menace at GoregaonPanchayat Rd station in Goregaon West has a huge auto menace with auto drivers blatantly rejecting passengers wanting to go to MTNL Junction They reject sometimes even in front of the traffic police This causes huge delays during morning office hours Also the area is very small and there is so much traffic The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC and police need to clear out these lanes or wersquore staring at a possible disasterAtharva SatheToo few regular autosUnlike previous years when autos just stopped with a wave of the hand in Bandra West I am increasingly finding that autos are refusing those who flag them down saying ldquobooking auto hairdquo This means they have moved to apps where fares are higher Senior citizens with walking sticks and young students are left in the lurch The traffic police must please help stop this nonsenseCeline DsouzaBikers creating too much noiseRepresentation PicWe have been observing for quite sometime that motorcycles make very highdecibel noise in the early morning hours on SV Road in Santacruz West This is extremely disturbing to residents who are sleeping during this time We request the authorities to take note of thisSeema BokkasamMetro construction debrisREPRESENTATION PICAs the Santacruz West Metro station construction is going on in full swing we have observed that a lot of construction debris and unwanted material are left lying in and around the busy road resulting in inconvenience of movement for pedestrians and traffic We request the authorities concerned to look into the matter and clear this debrisSeema BokkasamResponsesAfter readers sent in their questions and woes to midday last Monday some of the authorities concerned responded We havenrsquot given up on the rest We shall continue to hold authorities accountable for the state of the cityBroken steps at Andheri stnReader Chetan N MehtaResponse Apropos of broken steps at Andheri station the foot over bridge connects the east and west side and goes over the railway lines Railway officials said this is a public bridge built and maintained by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and that they have conveyed the issue to the local civic officials for its better upkeepRusted broken postboxReader Iqbal Gilani MansuriResponse A GPO official said ldquoThere is a longterm plan to classify and maintain key postboxes in the state whereby all postboxes will be reassessed and the broken ones removed and discarded division wiserdquoFilth in the riverReader Kiran P ChaudhariResponse A BMC official from Dahisar said ldquoThe cleaning of the Dahisar River is currently underway with work in progress at stretches in Ratan Nagar Sainath Nagar and near St Louis The photograph shared shows the downstream stretch of river near at Dahisar Gaothan Cleaning work in that area is scheduled to begin in the first week of MayrdquoPoor railway renovation workReader Aakash PandyaResponse The platform surfacing work is in progress at Grant Road station platforms 1 and 4 in connection to Amrit Bharat Station Scheme ABSS station development work Now the platform surfacing work on platform 4 is around 90 per cent completed and the covering work too is in progress and it will be completed shortly At Grant Road station platform 1 around 50 per cent surfacing work has been completed from the north end The contractor has been instructed to attend to these locations on urgency to avoid any inconvenience a WR spokesperson said