Embarrassing Experience in Vaishali Hotel, Chembur

I A.Kukreja with my wife and children went to this place as we like the food very much. We r regular customers here and enjoy the neer dosa and tawa fish which is our favourite.

We were recommended this place by Bhumika Shetty who is a very good friend of my wife and is some how related to the owners of Vaishali.

We also have had business training sessions and have booked their party hall for biz functions. The people there kindly offer us some small discounts too since we r regular customers.

Last night when the waiter was about to give us the bill, my wife casually asked him to give us the discount as usual to which he said yes. He went to the cashier ARVIND who started abusing and yelling  "every one asks for discounts " and "I will not give discount to every customer".

It was so embarrassing with so many customers sitting around and I with my family am getting insulted for a small discount. I felt ashamed and decided to talk to this Arvind who started abusing us as well that he is not here to give discounts.

I tried to pacify him, saying why is he getting so loud and hyper. As a customer I have requested for discount which I always get and if you cannot give it at least say politely. I told him he should not speak like that to a customer and especially with ladies. To this he started abusing even more. I have never seem such a behaviour from anyone towards a customer. It is very bad for the image of the restaurant. I shall never want to go there again.

I felt very insulted and decided to any how communicate this incident through all media to the promoters of Vaishali so that they take appropriate action against this cashier.

I am from the building line and also in IT Industry where service matters most for getting good customers. With people like Arvind in Vaishali, in spite of the best food, decent people may not want to go there again. I shall put it in face book twitter and all available blogs and media as well so that this message reaches to the promoters and corrective action is taken.

Dear Chemburites,

Some associations in Chembur are putting pressure on the ‘M’ Ward & higher sanctioning authorities by vested interests to adopt this ground ( Gandhi Maidan) as this maidan is the only space in Chembur, where all children from all strata of society have been playing for the last 55 years.
YMCA shares part of the ground ,where many Chemburites have enjoyed.
The BMC has enough funds to maintain this ground. If this ground is given for adoption it will become like similar ground like MIG –club, Bandra (E),
So all the children will be deprived from playing.
Also as per Adoption / caretaker policy, caretaker can restrict access to public or / and caretaker can make some construction in maidan.
We citizens of Chembur strongly object to any adoption. We insist that BMC itself take care of this playground.
So please help in saving the only open space for our children & our future.

Wake up, otherwise one more playground will be lost

Comments

• i've been playing in this maidan since childhood.all of the players of gandhi maidan should protest against this act for ruining the childhood of many other to come im strongly against this so should everyone be!!!! -prathamesh , chembur gaothan
  let us all come together n protest against this  to protect our GANDHI MAIDAAN!!!!!!!
  
• How BMC sell to any other this playground ?We are playing since childhood.we are protesting this action of BMC.
  Dinesh Shah ,Chembur Naka
• Yes, I want to save this Gandhi maidan. Only one open public space is Gandhi maidan.people of chembur want to save this.
  Nikhil patil ,ghatle
• Yes the Gandhi maidan ought to be saved from vested interests. Open places are the lungs of our suburb-so they must  be left alone. As it is our suburb is very congested, we just CANNOT afford to lose Gandhi maidan. We fully agree than the BMC has enough funds to maintain it--so let them!!! Vested interests stay away!! WE will hate you for doing this!BMC , please wake up! Don't we pay u enough taxes? U are rich enough to maintain gandhi maidan! its our property!
  Ms. kala suresh, GM link road
• This is big politics.They already grab subhash nagar maidan.Chembur people are Dumb. Mr.Shrikant ,postal colony
• Yes , we have to save the maidan. We citizens will get together,and fight for our rights Anitha.c , BPCL cOLONY
• I am from opera house,mumbai, and I know what is Importance of Open spaces,Maidan or gardens.so,you Must have to fight for it.where are corporators,MLAs ,MPs of your Area.good initiative. Mr.Pravin Mehta ,Opera house
• We lost Subhash nagar maidan,but not again.Chembur citizens must fight for Gandhi maidan. Satish Gupta, Chembur station

Mumbai, Feb 20: A ninth standard student Ashwini Patankar from Swami Vivekananda school, Chembur won the first prize in the ISRO's 'Water Rocket Making and Launching Competition' here on Friday.

The competition is one of the "outreach" programmes of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) to popularise space and rocket sciences. This is the first time it has been held in Mumbai. The second prize was bagged by Sanket Joglekar of IES Modern English School and third prize by Tushar Sawant of St Xavier school in Borivili.

The winners received Rs 2000, 1500 and 1000 respectively from ISRO. There were three consolation prizes of Rs 500 each. Typically, a water rocket can travel up to a distance of about 300 feet and to a height of 50-75 feet, B R Guruprasad in-charge of the programme said.

Today's maximum was around 250 feet but many of them could make their water rocket travel up to 180 ft.

The competition brought out the engineering skills in them and some even showed innovations in the ISRO's design model taught to them. It was very satisfying, he said. "The experience of building water rockets makes the students understand the basics of rocket propulsion as well as nuances involved in a simple model rocket construction," Guruprasad said.

Such a competition was first held in Bangalore in 2007. This is the second such competition on water rockets that was held in Mumbai, S Satish, an official from ISRO said.

"We jointly organised the event with the Nehru Planetarium and are planning to organise several such events in various states to enthuse students in rocket and propulsion science," he said.

There were 98 ninth standard students selected from schools across Mumbai and out of them 27 were selected for finals, Satish said.

Water rockets are model rockets that can be built from empty pressurised soft drinks plastic bottles, plastic and PVC sheets as well as a few stationery items, Guruprasad said.

These rockets are then filled with water, pressurised using a pump, and launched using a spring loaded simple rocket launcher, he said.

Building and launching water rocket provides the exciting experience for high school students, said Planetarium director Piyush Pandey.

23Lakhs people can walk to nearest monorail station

MUMBAI: More than 23 lakh people stay walking distance-or a kilometer-from the 20-km Jacob Circle-Wadala-Chembur monorail route, a survey has found.

Monorail passengers will also get an easy link with the Western, Central and Harbour lines of existing suburban train services as the route will touch Mahalaxmi, Currey Road, Wadala and Chembur stations.

A typical four-coach monorail rake can carry 600 passengers; if the authorities decide on six-coach rakes, about 900 people will be able to use a single service.

"We have 18 stations on this 20-km route and each station is just about a kilometer from the other,'' joint metropolitan commissioner Ashwini Bhide told TOI. "This will be a boon for at least 2.3 million people who stay within walking distance of the route,'' metropolitan transport and communication chief P R K Murthy said.

Chief minister Ashok Chavan performed the ground-breaking ceremony to start construction work on the route at Chembur on Monday. The ceremony was scheduled to be held last November in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but had to be put off because of the terror attacks of 26/11.

There will also be skywalks between the monorail and suburban railway stations (Mahalaxmi to Jacob Circle and Currey Road-Chinchpokli).

"People will also be able to cross over to the Harbour Line at Wadala,'' Bhide said.

The project will be ready by June 2011 but the first 8-km sector between Chembur and Wadala is slated to be commissioned by December 2010. Twenty years is the break-even period for recovering the cost of investment.

The entire cost of the project is being borne by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and the contract for construction and maintenance of the monorail corridor for the first three years is with L&T-SCOMI. The MMRDA may think of handing over the service to BEST for maintenance after that.

chittaranjan.tembhekar@timesgroup.com

Chief Minister Ashok  Chavan to lay foundation for monorail project

MUMBAI: Mumbaikars' dream of smooth commuting will get a major boost with the laying of the foundation stone for India's first Monorail project at

suburban Chembur by Maharashtra chief minister.

"Chief Minister Ashok Chavan will lay the foundation stone tomorrow for the India's first Monorail at Acre club in Chembur," Additional Metropolitan Commissioner Milind Mhaiskar told media.

The foundation stone for the 19.54-km-long monorail, which will connect south Mumbai to the eastern suburbs (Jacob Circle to Chembur via Wadala), was supposed to be laid by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on November 29 but the ceremony was cancelled following the November 26 Mumbai terror attacks.

The state government along with MMRDA has taken the initiative to implement the Monorail system in the most congested corridors of Mumbai to comfort the commuters.

The monorail project, which is expected to complete in a period of thirty months, will reduce burden on the existing suburban rail network.

Malaysian-based Scomi Engineering in collaboration with Larsen & Toubro will execute the Rs 2,4600-crore project.

Showcase flyover delayed again

Mumbai: The double-decker flyover on the Santacruz-Chembur Link Road (SCLR), one of the key road components of the showcase Mumbai Urban Transport Project, will miss its revised deadline of December 2009. Members of a World Bank team told Newsline after a review mission that the SCLR is running behind schedule. The new deadline is December 2010.
The primary reason for the delay, according to Hubert Nove-Josserand, team task leader of the World Bank for MUTP, is the rehabilitation and resettlement of those affected by the project on the 6.45-km stretch. “The progress on SCLR is still very slow and will not be over by its December ’09 deadline. The work is slower than expected, mostly due to the issue of rehabilitation and resettlement (R & R),” Josserand said.
Meanwhile, the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road is progressing as per schedule and is expected to be completed by December, Josserand said.
According to him, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority — the nodal agency for MUTP — has to push the R&R issue to expedite the project. “They (MMRDA) have recognised the need to put more effort, add more capacity for R&R and better project management. We now expect a physical progress in six months from today,” Josserand said.
The six-lane SCLR is running behind its original schedule by nearly four years and is merely 35 per cent complete. The delay in implementing the project has seen a huge cost escalation in the project, aimed at giving better east-west connectivity.
According to data with the MMRDA, the SCLR will now cost Rs 242.39 crore, an increase of Rs 115.39 crore from its earlier estimates.
The authority is now set to sign a memorandum of understanding with 260 PAPs of 13 individual societies at Tilak Nagar. However, another worry for the MMRDA, the R&R of four societies at Netaji Nagar, still remains to be resolved.
While MMRDA officials were unavailable for comment, the World Bank officials were satisfied with the progress in the rail component of the project.
According to Josserand, the impact of the rail component, which was to decongest the trains, has been achieved with 26 new rakes introduced in six months. “The rail component is progressing well. The impact in terms of decongestion is happening. It is close to the level of decongestion that we had planned for when we started out on the project,” he said.