Cracked Lalbaug flyover reopens for a day after temporary repairs Fadnavis’ pet projects fail to find any takers

The Lalbaug flyover, which has been shut for commuters since Wednesday night after a gap was spotted on the six-year-old bridge, will be open on Friday. Reason: The civic body has repaired the gap temporarily. The incident has again raised doubts over the quality of the bridge’s construction.

The bridge is likely to remain open just on Friday, however, because the BMC will undertake repairs again on Saturday and Sunday.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ ambitious plan to expand Mumbai’s business districts and revitalise its financial hub tag may have hit a road block.

A year after the state government announced plans to set up a business district in Oshiwara on the lines of Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC), planning authority Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has admitted there is no demand for commercial units in the proposed Oshiwara District Centre (ODC). The lack of interest from commercial establishments has now forced the state’s urban development department to modify its planning notification issued in November last year to grant commercial units FSI of up to 4 in the area. The notification issued by the department last week said the MMRDA had written about the lack of interest from commercial units in May. It has now proposed mixed user development in the area, routing much of the excess FSI for residential development.

Tata Sons made its first move on Thursday to wrest control of group companies by replacing Cyrus Mistry and nominating group veteran Ishaat Hussain as the chairman of TCS, the conglomerate’s mostprofitable company.

The boardroom battle for control of the $103-billion Tata group also saw for the first time the warring sides trade charges, counter-charges on the same day and disclose crucial information, that apart from painting a dismal financial picture reaffirms what most analysts have been saying, that Tata Consultancy Services and Jaguar Land Rover alone account for 90% of the group’s profits.

The unprecedented no-holds barred attack from Tata Sons saw the 150-year old conglomerate accuse Mistry of betraying trust and of adopting devious means to usurp control of key group companies.

The Tatas initiated Thursday’s attack by first nominating group veteran Hussain as TCS chairman and subsequently calling for extraordinary general meetings at TCS and Indian Hotels to vote out Mistry as a director.

The trigger for such a move was the unexpected rallying of independent directors of Indian Hotels last week, endorsing Mistry’s leadership, which hit at the Tatas’ stance of nonperformance by Mistry.