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indianexpress Harried residents of Pashan, Aundh, Baner and Sus, compelled to use the long and winding road to get to the University chowk and commuter from other parts of the city travelling to these areas, can now rest assured.

Public Works Department (PWD) minister and Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) chairman Anil Deshmukh on Wednesday said the work of the flyover coming up at the University Chowk was 80 per cent done.
“The flyover will be opened by June 15 when the work is expected to be completed. The major work of laying the slabs will be finished by May 21 after which only the minor works like streetlights, painting and asphalting will remain,” the minister said on Wednesday.

Deshmukh who visited the site near University chowk said: “According to the design, some 29 slabs are to be laid for the flyover. Of these, 20 slabs are already in place,” he said.
The MSRDC had written a letter to the PMC demanding Rs 132 crore for the construction work carried out so far under the IRDP. This involves construction of 15 flyovers, nine railway overbridges and two bridges across rivers. Four flyovers have been completed along with four overbridges and one bridge across a river. “We have ended up spending Rs 140 crore so far,” he claimed.

indianexpress On Tuesday, Day One of ‘I@Police’, the computerised system of the traffic branch of the city police, caught around 768 violators on camera. On day two, the system captured nearly 500 violators.

Inaugurated by police commissioner Jayant Umranikar,it runs on a special software, can issue computer generated notices to those violating traffic rules especially jumping signals. The traffic police have also tied up with a private agency, to deliver the notice to the violator’s address asking him/her to pay the fine along with Rs 10 as service charge. “If they fail to respond, the traffic police will seize their vehicles,” ACP (Traffic) Suresh Bhoomkar said.

indianexpress A day after the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) okayed second day’s industry power cut, industry associations in the city expressed hope that the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) will not enforce the decision as it will lead to significant revenue loss for the utility. However, MSEDCL managing director Ajay Bhushan Pande said that it may not have any other choice, unless there was a drastic improvement on the supply front in the immediate future.

Referring to the MERC directive, Pande said purchase of costly power for meeting the demand will lead to decreased duration of load shedding in rural areas. “I have asked for some clarification from MERC after their order came on March 23 on how to proceed on load-shedding in the case of units that have voluntary decreased their consumption by 20 per cent,” Pande said.
Jayant Deo, head of sub-committee on power at MCCIA, agreed: “I do not think that the MSEDCL will opt for a second staggering day it will mean huge revenue loss. It is also the time of the year when Maharashtra starts receiving additional wind power to the tune of 1,500 MW and demand for power for irrigation is less.”

indianexpress Come May 5, passholders of both the Pune Municipal Transport (PMT) and the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Transport (PCMT) can travel on both transport bodies’ buses. In the wake of the PMT-PCMT merger, both bodies will provide a common platform for the administrative and functional activities.

This decision was taken in a joint meeting of the PMT and PCMT officials on Wednesday.
In regular circumstances, PMT buses plying in PCMT areas would not have been able to carry passengers from a PCMT bus stand. This will change too. Also, in case of breakdown of a PMT bus in a PCMT area, the PCMT breakdown van can now render its services to repair the bus.

Kerketta also said efforts would be made to reduce competition on common routes. “We will plan it in a way that will best reduce losses and competition,” she said.

Kerketta has also formed committees of PMT (12 member) and PCMT (eight member) employees to study the traffic administration. “The plan will be prepared in 15 days and presented to the board of directors,” she said.

To enable better co-ordination of officials, meetings will be held every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

indianexpress In their bid to push for a speedier solution to the problem created by the dissolution of the Suvarna Sahakari Bank, the Suvarna Sangharsha Samiti will observe silent protests throughout the month of May. The first protest — to feature a rolling pin and plate — will be held outside the Aundh branch of the bank at ITI road on Thursday.

Eight months ago, Suvarna bank had crumbled and was dissolved owing to large amount of loans. Since then, the Samiti has been aiding depositors, account holders and members of the bank for justice.
Samiti member Shrikant Limaye said that the deposit and account holders have been demanding Agashe to look into the matter and solve their problems. But he has been ignorant. “Agashe has been saying the members of the bank are like his family. But how will he know the problems of his family members if he travels by luxury cars,” the Samiti members said.

Another member needed to know why only Rs 3 crore was recovered from Agashe, while Rs 100 crore was recovered from other defaulters.

indianexpress A shortage of Auto Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) on Wednesday saw autorickshaw drivers queue up at the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) outlets opposite the Regional Transport Office (RTO) and near Rahul Talkies in Shivajinagar.

While standing in the queue near the RTO, autorickshaw driver Sadashiv Apte said it was more than an hour that he was waiting with his vehicle in the queue having moved only an inch. He was lucky. Those waiting outside the BPCL outlet near Rahul Talkies were left dejected as the stocks ran out in the afternoon.
According to estimates given by oil industry, some 1,500 kilolitres (1,000 litres = 1 kilolitre) of LPG is supplied to the city, when the demand is for 2,400 kilolitres. Currently, over 15,380 vehicles ply on LPG in the city. Moreover, the proposed 9,500 LPG autorickshaws alone need about 80,000 litres of LPG everyday and there are just seven LPG dispensing stations.

itwire Chief Executive Steve Jobs fired back at environmentalists Wednesday, saying the maker of the ubiquitous iPod is an industry leader in removing toxic chemicals from its products and promoting recycling.

Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) plans to completely eliminate the use of arsenic in all of its displays by the end of 2008, and the company will eventually stop using mercury and will transition to LED backlighting whenever possible, Jobs wrote in a five-page memo published on the company’s Web site.

Apple will also change its communications strategy and be more proactive in promoting its environmental goals in 2008 and beyond, Jobs said.

“It is generally not Apple’s policy to trumpet our plans for the future,” Jobs wrote. “Unfortunately this policy has left our customers, shareholders, employees and the industry in the dark about Apple’s desires and plans to become greener.”
In response to Jobs’ memo, the environmental group Greenpeace said it will boost Apple’s score in its June “Guide to Greener Electronics,” probably to 5 out of 10, up from 2.7 currently.

“Apple’s new commitment to environmental transparency and the phase out of the worst chemicals in its product range are genuine steps forward,” Greenpeace spokesman Steve Smith said in a statement. “We look forward to Apple going further to green their existing products.”

trustedreviews Now the answer is out and hot favourite Ubuntu has landed the job – and the kind of publicity money can’t buy. In a statement the developer said “Canonical and Dell are pleased to announce a partnership to offer Ubuntu 7.04 on select desktop and notebook products. This is a tremendous step forward for Ubuntu, our users and customers.”

As for Dell it has yet to announce on which PCs it will offer Ubuntu (incidentally, an African word meaning ‘Humanity to others’, or ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’) but current Internet chatter has the Dimension e-series desktop and laptops top of the list. An XPS desktop has also been rumoured but this would seem a strange decision give the device’s gaming orientation.

toptechnews A new survey about Apple’s iPhone entry into the crowded smartphone market shows the glass is either half-empty or half-full. In its market survey of 1,300 people, Markitecture found that about 6 percent of the respondents said they would likely buy the iPhone in the next year.

The 6 percent figure might at first sound like a low number, but Markitecture cautioned about that interpretation. “While 6 percent may appear low for a high-profile product launch,” the company noted in a statement, “it actually may be very strong for the cell phone market. The highly successful Motorola RAZR, after its launch in 2004, achieved a 6 percent market share at its peak.”

About 11 percent of total respondents said there was a 50-50 chance or better that they would buy Apple’s iPhone within the next year. And in general, the survey found, the more people heard about the iPhone, the better they liked it.
About 89 percent said there was less than a 50-50 chance they would buy it, and about two-thirds said there was no chance. Cost was cited as the main reason. Apple has set the price of the iPhone at $499 for the 4-GB model and $599 for the 8-GB.

The No. 2 reason cited for not wanting to buy the iPhone related to carrier issues. AT&T (formerly Cingular) has an exclusive six-month contract as the sole provider of the iPhone in the U.S. “Purchase intent was far higher for AT&T/Cingular customers than it is for customers of other carriers,” the report said, “roughly twice as likely when compared to Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, or Verizon Relevant Products/Services customers.”

About 77 percent of those surveyed said they were at least slightly familiar with the iPhone, which, as Markitecture pointed out, is a “respectable number” given that the iPhone has not yet been released.

latimes The founders of Joost are trying to map television’s future. But they’re starting with a bunch of reruns.

Joost, the Internet TV outfit started by the team behind the Kazaa file-sharing program and Skype Internet phone service, said Tuesday that it had struck deals for shows and shorter clips from Time Warner Inc., Sony Corp., the National Hockey League and Hasbro Inc.

That deal lets Joost users watch shows such as “Charlie’s Angels” and “Larry King Live” on their computer screens, starting Thursday. The service, pronounced “juiced,” offers a smorgasbord of more than 150 channels featuring full-length shows including “Rocky and Bullwinkle,” “Beavis & Butt-Head” and the “CSI” series.

Joost launched in January as an invitation-only website available to a handful of viewers. On Tuesday, the site threw open its doors, letting current subscribers invite as many people as they want to become members.

Viewers can watch for free as long as they’re willing to sit through some ads. Last week, the Luxembourg-based company announced deals with more than 30 advertisers, including Coca-Cola Co., Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel Corp. and Nike Inc.

“We’re expanding our content offerings, we’re adding advertisers and we’re opening the floodgates to people to come watch,” said Joost Chief Executive Fredrik de Wahl. “So everything is coming together.”

The site was founded by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the Scandinavian software programmers who developed Skype, which they sold two years ago to EBay Inc. for $2.5 billion, plus as much as $1.4 billion more if they reach certain incentives. They also created Kazaa, which ran afoul of the music and movie industries for enabling users to share pirated songs and shows.