Thane Real Estate: Eco-smart houses on the rise
Mumbai university to open new campus in Thane
Mumbai University, which had earlier planned to start a sub-centre in north Mumbai, has decided to have a third campus - in Thane.Thane will get 3rd varsity campus TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Mumbai: The University of Mumbai will soon have its third campus - this one in Thane. The varsity, which earlier planned to start a mere sub-centre in north Mumbai, has now decided to have a larger presence in Thane, to cater to the expanding higher education services in the district.
Thane municipal corporation had handed over 6.20 acres for the sub-centre at Balkum, towards Bhiwandi. Now, the plan has turned more ambitious. "After Mumbai district, we are seeing most colleges come up in Thane. We will finally have a campus here. It cannot happen overnight and will take about 10 to 15 years to develop completely. But, this is the dream of the university," said university vice-chancellor Rajan Welukar.
Construction will begin immediately as the university has already set aside Rs 75 lakh in this year's budget for the Thane centre, which will, in its early years, merely conduct administrative work such as admitting students and handing out results.
"But over time, we want to offer programmes that will allow vertical mobility to students from their colleges. This will include introduction of both postgraduate and doctoral programmes so that students from remote and tribal areas can also benefit," said Welukar.
Also, in a wired world, university officials felt that lectures delivered in Kalina could be beamed live to the Thane campus. "Once we have some facilities up and running, we can also allow teachers to carry out assessment and evaluation work from Thane. That way, the faculty will not have to travel all the way to Kalina," said Vilas Shinde, controller of examinations.
After the ground-breaking ceremony, five local MLAs from various political stripes together contributed Rs 50 lakh from their funds to start the construction and developmental work of the centre. Currently, the university has two more sub-centres - in Ratnagiri and Kalyan.
Reason For Expansion
Currently, the University of Mumbai has two campuses - one at Fort and the other at Kalina. Of late, due to paucity of land in Mumbai district, more than a 100 colleges of the 618 affiliated to the University of Mumbai, have come up in Thane alone. After Mumbai district, the varsity is witnessing a huge growth in higher education institutes in Thane district.
CR to increase services, improve punctuality Roana Maria Costa I TNN
Mumbai: Central Railway's mainline commuters have something to cheer about. By the end of this year, two lines will be added between Kurla and Thane stations. These new fifth and sixth lines will take a huge load off the existing four lines in the 17-km stretch that has the highest density, carrying the most number of commuters on CR.
Work on the project started almost a decade ago and was carried out in two phases - phase one comprised the 10-km stretch between Kurla and Bhandup. The second phase included the 7-km stretch between Bhandup and Thane.
According to CR officials, in December, the mainline will see increased punctuality as long-distance trains will have a dedicated path and won't ply on 'fast' tracks.
There are 24 pairs of long distance trains from LTT every day, which now use the fast corridor. After they get their exclusive path, punctuality would get a boost. Forty-eight paths would be added to run new trains. They would provide relief during mega blocks. Additional relief would come as goods trains towards Trombay and BPT would be diverted to new lines.
A CR source said that a yard at Vidyavihar station only remains to be constructed and a detailed plan is expected on Wednesday.
However, Chief PRO of CR S C Mudgerikar is quick to add a disclaimer that even though 48 paths would be available from CST-Thane, starting them would depend on the availability of new rakes.
Mudgerikar said, according to this year's railway budget, 101 trains were announced of which 88 have already been introduced. "CR has a commitment of only 13 more by March end."
