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About 60 remaining unauthorised shrines in the city due to face the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)s hammer may just get some reprieve. The civic body is mulling over making a provision in the Development Control rule, 1991 to allow construction of shrines on private and public layout and also provide them with free Floor Space Index (FSI). Currently, there is no provision in the civic law which allows construction of shrines on public or private land. The issue was discussed in the civic house on Friday in the wake of the angry protests during the demolition of a Sai Baba temple in Andheri just a few days ago. Already ,following the Bombay High Courts order, the civic body demolished 1000 unauthorised shrines in the city in the last two months.
Thanks to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, Paula and David Kucera are saving $30,000 off the cost of their new house. Their 2,500-square-foot residence in Gardiner is being equipped with a photovoltaic system to generate electricity through solar power, allowing the couple to take advantage of the agency's New York Energy Smart PV Incentive Program that reduced the system's installation cost from about $60,000 to $30,000. "New York state is probably one of the most progressive states in terms of subsidizing alternative energy (costs)," Paula Kucera said. To be eligible for savings for their solar-electric system, the Kuceras, who are involved in the construction of their antique-barn-sided home, are working with state-certified installer, John Wright, owner of Hudson Valley Clean Energy in Rhinebeck.
Maybe the 19th-century Genius of Water centerpiece of the Tyler Davidson Fountain is smart enough to offer some time-saving tips on 21st century construction techniques. With just a day left until the $42.6 million makeover of Fountain Square is unveiled with a splashy 10-hour celebration, the public square at the heart of downtown Cincinnati is still months away from completion. Steve Leeper, the president and chief executive of Cincinnati Center City Development Corp., said the reopening has a "rolling" timetable, with additional elements of the project scheduled for completion over the next six months. Cincinnati Center City Development Corp., known as 3CDC, is the private company that is managing Fountain Square and its redevelopment, "I wish I could tell you there was one reason why," Leeper said.
Or, a rising star in the booming construction sector caught in the cross-hairs of an arch rival and on criminal charges related to bid-rigging? Industry watchers say the story contains the two elements. But the man under scrutiny, contractor Hafeez Karamath, insists that he has received no special favours from the State-run Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT), or anybody else for that matter, and that rumours swirling about his so-called political and business connections are just that. Karamath, who is before the courts on criminal charges related to the US$150 million desalination water plant at Point Lisas, is hanging tough, ignoring his critics and pushing full speed ahead to catch up on government-funded projects that have fallen behind schedule and over-budget-among them, the Manning administration's much-trumpeted Brian Lara Cricket Stadium in Torouba.
Officials with southwest China's Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality made pledges at an ongoing conference about drought relief that they will strengthen the water conservancy construction "at all costs" to avoid the recurrence of the abject droughts torturing the two places this summer.
In the next few years, Chongqing will invest more money in the infrastructure construction of farmland water conservancy and complete the construction of a drought monitoring and forecast system, said Liao Daiyu, vice head of the city's flood control and drought relief office.
The official added that the office will also work on how to utilize the limited water resources in a more efficient way when the area is hit by a drought again.
The neighboring Sichuan Province also promised a large scale water conservancy construction before the next summer.
Your Toronto Maple Leafs will have a new practice facility built just for them as part of a $29 million, four-rink ice heaven to be erected by the Lakeshore Lions and here's the perfect name for the joint. Let's call it BOHICA Flats, the name provided by a friend who explains that the letters stand for Bend Over, Here It Comes Again. That's a warning we could all well heed when it comes to mixing taxpayer money with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. Our city council, co-conspirators in past stadium/arena road apples with MLSE, is set to discuss, possibly even approve, the public's participation Monday at city hall. MLSE, putting up no money up-front, gets a brand new practice centre for the Leafs and Marlies (as long as they're around), plus control of arena naming rights and where have you heard that one before? MLSE also gets 80 per cent of revenue from rinkboard advertising.
Vandalism and vagrancy have recently plagued the Rocky Mount Train Station, and the city is taking steps to address both issues. Police have stepped up patrols of the area and are being more strict with loiterers, many of whom are homeless. "(Patrolling) has increased dramatically in the last three or four weeks," said Rocky Mount police Chief John Manley. The city is also installing panic doors on the streetside entrances to direct nighttime visitors at the 24-hour station to the railroad track-side entrance and repairing three broken security cameras. For the past year, gang graffiti has continually been sprayed in the men's restroom at the station, said Assistant City Manager Peter Varney. The historic train station, renovated and reopened in September 2000, did not have problems with gang vandalism prior to a year ago, he said.
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