News

IndianExpress:  Pune’s tryst with Bus Rapid Transit System has hit a roadblock even before it has got started with the civic standing committee on Thursday rejecting six out of seven tenders for the Rs 65-crore pilot project on Pune-Satara and Pune-Solapur roads. This comes only a day after the Centre approved Rs 476 crore for phase I of BRTS on 12 city roads under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. The lone approval came on the strength of the committee chairman’s casting vote after the vote for approval ended in a deadlock.

The damper is quite inopportune as Pune is clearly at the receiving end of central largesse in the form of infrastructure development funds under JN-NURM to the tune of Rs 1,276 crore sanctioned to Pune Municipal Corporation in the last five months.

IndianExpress:  IF you have wanderlust and want to see the verdant greens of Konkan, the sunny beaches dotting its coastal line or go on a boat-ride on the backwaters of Parkarli, here’s your chance. Organised by the Konkan Paryatan Charitable Trust the ‘agri-tourism’ package tours give you a chance to experience the rich culture and tradition of Konkan.

The highlight of the tour is the motorcycle packages available from October 26 to November 3, where one gets to ride through the coastal area. This tour is divided into two legs — one from Mumbai to Ganapatipule, the other is from Ganapatipule to Vengurle. Fee for participation is Rs 2000.

IndianExpress:  SERPENTINE queues for getting cooking gas cylinders during the festive season may soon be a thing of the past as Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is doubling the capacity of its bottling unit at Shikrapur to cater to the city’s increasing demand. BPCL that faced the maximum shortage of cylinders this festive season with backlogs exceeding 1.8 lakh cylinders at one point, is investing upwards of Rs 4 crore to add an automated bottling machine at its plant.

IndianExpress:  A 12-year-old boy, who had come to Pune from Panvel to celebrate Diwali with his relatives, was killed when he came under the wheels of a private mini-bus near Paud Phata on Karve Road late on Thursday evening. Three Pune Municipal Transport (PMT) buses and a car were damaged as irate residents indulged in stone pelting after the mishap. The situation was stated to be “tense but under control”.

The police said the identity of the boy had been ascertained as Prasad Sudam Gole. Prasad was crossing the busy Karve Road near Paud Phata when the mishap took place around 8 pm.

TechTree: Seagate Technology has announced availability of two new network storage products; the Mirra Sync and Share Personal Server, and the Maxtor Shared Storage II, aimed at small office and home network users.

The Mirra Sync and Share Personal Server is an easy content management solution, which provides automatic, continuous data protection to multiple users, along with snychronisation and remote access to data.

TechTree: Personal computer buyers can now upgrade to the Vista operating system (OS), as Microsoft Corp has reportedly announced the Vista upgrading coupon program wherein customers buying PCs will get a Vista upgrade coupon for free or at a discounted rate.

Under the program, customers buying PCs between October 26 and March 15, 2007, with pre-installed Windows XP OS, will be able to upgrade to Vista OS, once it’s made available to the public. Vista is scheduled to debut early next year.