Car congestion driving up CO2 levels

Mumbai: Bumper-to-bumper traffic in Mumbai is not only pushing up citizens' frustration levels, it is also increasing vehicular emissions on key routes in the city by 33% to 75% during peak traffic hours. 

    A study prepared by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) which will be released on Thursday shows that travelling from Worli to Chembur after 6pm makes a petrol car guzzle nearly twice as much fuel as during off-peak hours. This doubles the vehicle's carbon dioxide emissions from 390gm, during the trip, to 780gm. 
    The study says that the Mumbai Metropolitan Region will be in grave peril by 2050 if cars keep hitting its roads at the same rate as today. Going by projections, by that time, particulate matter (PM10) emissions in Mumbai from vehicles will more than double—from an already high 1,583 tonnes per year to 3,666 tonnes—and so will nitrogen oxide (NO2) emissions. 
CHOKE-A-BLOCK IN THE CITY 
    Traffic jams send vehicular emissions 
on key routes soaring by up to 75% 
    For eg, a drive from CST to Parel takes nearly 22 minutes more duringpeak hours. This means nearly two more litres of fuel 
    NEERI study says emissions of particulate matter and nitrogen will more than double, and that of carbon dioxide by 60% by 2050 
    Study shows pollutant load is highest in Mumbai, followed by Thane & Navi Mumbai

Kandivli woman loses 1.2L in email scam

1 Held In Indore

Mumbai: A 32-year-old man from Indore in Madhya Pradesh has been arrested for allegedly duping a student in Kandivli (E) of Rs 1.2 lakh through an email lottery scam. The police are now looking for three to four more persons in the case. 

    In February, the 26-year-old Kandivli resident received an email from one Arick Donald, saying she had won a lottery of Rs 5 crore and asking her to provide her personal details such as cellphone number, bank account number and address. The victim replied to the email and sent her personal details. 
    "On February 16, Donald told her he was in Delhi with her prize money. He said he had been detained at the airport for non-payment of Customs duty and asked her to deposit Rs 24,500 in a bank account," said an officer from the cyber cell of the Mumbai police. 
    The victim deposited the money, following which Donald called her and told her to pay a conversion charge of Rs 93,000 as the prize money was in dollars. He told her to deposit the cash in an account in a multinational bank in Lokhandwala. 
    Two days after the victim deposited the amount, she received a letter from Donald. The letter, which carried an RBI logo, stated that she must pay Rs 3.9 lakh to the Indian's government's revenue and finance department. The victim then lodged a complaint. "We traced one of the bank accounts to Raj Kumar Tagela in Indore and arrested him," said the officer.