NEW DELHI: The next time you realise your mobile phone has run out of battery charge and you are commuting by the Delhi Metro, don’t fret – just connect your phone to the charging points that will soon be available at stations for free.

For the convenience of its commuters, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will install 134 multiple mobile charging machines at stations by July this year in a phased manner.

“Metro commuters can charge their mobile phones at metro stations as soon as charging points at stations are ready,” DMRC spokesperson Anuj Dayal said Sunday.

All major metro stations are already equipped with facilities such as bill-drop boxes, ATMs, tea and coffee vending machines, coin vending machines, eating joints, book shops and gift shops. The rent-a-cycle facility is also available at Patel Chowk, Pragati Maidan and Indraprastha metro stations.

Delhi-based Somya Enterprises is installing these machines, which will have multiple sockets to enable commuters to charge mobile phones of different brands and makes for free.

“The mobile phone charging machine will have six sockets or chargers and will be mounted on the walls in the paid area of the station,” Dayal informed.

In addition, charging points will also be available for laptops and mobile phones on board the 131 new trains which are being inducted for Phase 2 of Delhi Metro.

The south-west monsoon is likely to hit the national capital in a day or two as pre-monsoon showers drenched the city today, bringing respite to denizens braving intense heat wave for the past week.

Various parts of the city received rains during the past 12 hours ending 8:30 am which brought down the temperature to tolerable levels of 25 degree Celsius, the MeT Office said.

“The capital received pre-monsoon showers today. Monsoon showers are expected in a day or two,” the Duty Officer at Meteorological Department in Safdarjung, said.

The rain guages of the Weather Office has measures 6.8 mm of showers in the city between 5:30 pm last evening and 8:30 am today. The city has received over 10 mm of rains in the past three days.

The Weatherman said the minimum temperature dropped by over four degrees to touch 25 degree Celsius. Yesterday, the minimum was 29.2 degree Celsius.

However, the rains have brought in high humidity with the city experiencing 87 per cent humidity in the morning. The humidity levels oscillated between 42 and 72 per cent.

Delhi had missed its June 29 date, the normal onset day for the annual rains here, with monsoon but since Sunday, the city has been receiving showers.

The showers have brought respite for Delhiites facing searing heat and massive power cuts coupled with water shortage.

The capital has been witnessing intense heatwave for the past few days with maximum temperature hovering around 44 degrees. Last year, the maximum had not crossed 40 degree Celsius in June, with the highest of 38.7 degrees being recorded on the first day of the month.

Similarly, in 2001, the maximum had not crossed the 40-degree mark in the month. The record for the maximum temperature in June stands at 46.7 degree Celsius on June 17, 1945.

The Weather Office’s projection of likely monsoon in Delhi is based on its assertion that the monsoon had covered about 80 per cent of the country. Aided by the low pressure area in the Bay of Bengal, monsoon has covered entire Central India and some parts of Rajasthan and West Uttar Pradesh.

Weather scientists said that Delhi may get monsoon rains by July two and more vigorous falls by next week.

“Conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon over some more parts of Rajasthan, remaining parts of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and some parts of east Rajasthan and west UP in the next two days,” B P Yadav, Director of India Meteorological Department, has said.

The unabated heat wave continued to parch the hills in the Himachal Pradesh capital Shimla, as the mercury soared to 30.3 degrees Celsius Wednesday.

“The unusual rise in temperature and delay in monsoon is creating drought-like conditions in the low and mid-hills. The situation is likely to continue for some more days,” Manmohan Singh, director of the meteorological office here, told IANS.

The hottest day of the season was recorded Tuesday with the mercury touching 30.6 degrees Celsius in Shimla.

Singh said most of the districts had received deficient rainfall during the summer.

“With rains being deficient by almost 53 percent this season, the delay in the arrival of the monsoon will trigger drought in the hills,” he warned.

“This time the problem is more acute as the snowfall has played truant during the winter. The floating population of tourists in Shimla is making the situation worse this season. The government has started rationing water here.” A.N. Sharma, Shimla’s municipal commissioner said.

Added agriculture department officials: “The prolonged dry spell has badly affected the crops in Sirmaur, Una, Hamirpur, Bilaspur and Solan district.”

Slightly more than 80 percent of the total cultivated area in the state is rain-fed.

However, for the apple crop the situation is not so alarming so far.

“The situation is not so alarming till date for the apple crop. If the situation persists for the next 10 days, then it is likely to hit its yield by 25-30 percent,” S.P. Bhardwaj, joint director at Dr. Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry in Solan, admitted.

The dry and hot conditions have caused forest fires in the mid and lower hill areas, particularly the pine forests.

“An unusually large number of fires have been reported from various districts, except from tribal Kinnaur, Lahaul and Spiti districts because of the unprecedented hot weather,” state Forest Minister J.P. Nadda said.

“We are keeping our fingers crossed as the delay in monsoon would mean more forest fire incidents,” he added.

A paragliding instructor was killed and a tourist seriously injured after they crashed into the hills ringing a lake in Mussoorie last evening.

Instructor Vinod Kumar, 41, and Delhi’s Sanchit Sharma, 34, apparently lost control and crashed from a height of 130 metres while gliding over Mussoorie lake around 7pm.

Kumar, who was from Himachal Pradesh, died in a nursing home in Dehra Dun, 35km from Mussoorie. Doctors said Sharma’s condition was serious.

Operators in Mussoorie, where paragliding is popular among tourists, said this was the first major accident in recent times. The crash has raised questions on the adventure sport’s safety.

The paragliding operators and their equipment have also come under the scanner.

“We have ordered a probe. We don’t know what caused the fall but we will check the instruments of the paragliding agencies,” Amit Sinha, the Dehra Dun SSP, said.

A police spokesperson said Sharma and Kumar had crashed into the rocks on the hills around the lake.

Kumar was working for Skywing Paragliding, one of the many operators near the lake. Sharma’s family was waiting nearby when the two went for the flight.

Skywing termed the accident “unfortunate”. “The paraglider was hovering for a while and suddenly lost control,” a spokesperson said.

Other operators said it was difficult to predict the risks as many factors were involved — the flying conditions, individual gliding prowess, instructor’s skills and quality of the equipment.

NEW DELHI: With four new cases of A (H1N1) influenza being reported, the total number of confirmed swine flu cases has gone up to 63.

Of the affected, the condition of a 66-year-old woman in Delhi is said to be serious as she has developed respiratory problem and has been put on ventilator.

Of the four new cases, two were reported from Delhi and one each from Mumbai and Pune.

According to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, 460 people have been tested so far, of whom 63 are positive for swine flu.

Of the 63 cases, 37 have been discharged.

A 25-year-old man who travelled from the U.S. to New Delhi on June 17 himself reported to the identified health facility with complaints of sore throat. The second case in Delhi is that of a 29-year-old woman, who travelled from Canada, transiting Belgium. She reached Delhi on June 18 and reported to the health facility with symptoms of body ache, cough and fever.

A 24-year-old man who had travelled from the U.S. to Pune, transiting London and Mumbai. He travelled to Lucknow via Delhi and came back to Pune on June 15 and reported to the identified health facility with sore throat, cough and fever.

In Mumbai, a 23-year-old woman who travelled from Melbourne to the city, transiting Sydney, herself reported to the identified health facility on June 20 with symptoms of cough and fever.

The popular tourist resort town of Manali in Himachal Pradesh has finally got a cinema hall. The hall has been opened over the weekend in the Piccadilly multicomplex building in downtown Manali.

“The ultra modern hall has a capacity of 281 seats.The balcony seat tariff is Rs 100 and the rest is Rs 80 per seat,” said Sham Sharma, the owner. “Latest movies are being shown via satellite in the hall,” he said.

With a population of around 25,000, Manali, located in the Kullu valley, has 600 hotels and guest houses, but surprisingly did not have a cinema hall for the large number of tourists who visit the resort town from across the globe.

It is also a popular shooting locale for bollywood movies.

Shimla, June 21 (IANS) In a freak accident, a 20-year-old man, who was travelling on the Shimla-Kalka holiday special train, was crushed between the tunnel wall and the rail bogie in Himachal Pradesh’s Shimla district Sunday, railway police said.
“Mohd Mohsin, who was leaning out of the train, was killed when he slammed into the tunnel wall this (Sunday) morning near the Tara Devi station in Shimla,” investigating officer Ranbir Singh told IANS.

He said the victim belonged to Saharanpur town in Uttar Pradesh and was travelling with his relatives.

“At the time of the accident, 30-35 people were travelling on the train. Train services came to a brief halt on the railway line after the accident but resumed later,” the official added.

Five trains run between Kalka and Shimla every day. Each toy train – the popular name for it – has seven coaches and can accommodate nearly 200 passengers.

To cater to tourist rush, the railways started three special holiday trains. These trains will continue to run till July 15.

Unesco had included the 30-inch gauge Kalka-Shimla rail line in the list of world heritage sites in July 2008. The scenic journey along the rail line from 640 metres above sea level at Kalka to Shimla at 2,060 metres attracts a large number of tourists.

There are 102 tunnels on the rail line.

Nainital, June 13 (ANI): Nainital’s Bhimtal Lake is home to a large variety of aquatic species. There is an island in the centre of the lake that used to have a restaurant, which fascinated a lot of tourists until its beauty was ruined due to public’s leftovers.

The Nainital Lake Development Authority hence decided to develop an aquarium on the island.

They have converted the restaurant into an aquarium to prevent pollution and clean the lake.

“Earlier, there used to be a restaurant on this island and a lot of tourists used to visit the restaurant. However, tourists used to leave behind waste that used to pollute the lake. The Nainital Lake Development Authority came up with the idea of converting the restaurant into an aquarium to stop the lake from being polluted,” said Dhiraj Gartayal, Secretary of the Nainital Lake Development Authority in Uttarakhand.

A variety of fishes from countries like South Africa, Mexico and China have been kept in the aquarium that are captivating tourists’ attention. They are excited to watch different species of fishes in it.

“I am having fun here. Seriously, it’s really nice to be here and watch different species of fishes. I am watching such species of fishes that I found only in books,” said Sakshi Goel, a tourist.

Developing the aquarium took a year for lake authorities here. The aquarium consists of around 12 ‘aquaboxes’ that contain fishes.

With the introduction of a major new feature, it is hoped anyone visiting Nainital will enjoy here the most.

Nainital is a popular tourist destination in India. By Vipul Goel (ANI)

Nainital (PTI): The Centre plans to establish four new tiger reserves to save the endangered animal under Project Tiger, Union Minister of State for Forest and Environment Jairam Ramesh has said.

“Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa will have one tiger reserve each,” the minister, on a visit to Corbett National Park, told media persons on Saturday.

The country already has 37 tiger reserves.

Mussoorie (PTI): Tourists on a vacation to Mussoorie are having a tough time this summer due to lack of decent accommodation, stinking roads and above all acute shortage of water — fallouts of the indefinite strike by municipal employees of the popular hill station.

Taken up during the peak tourist season, the stir by employees of the water department and safai karamcharis demanding implementation of 6th Pay Commission recommendations has severely hit the town’s water supply and virtually turned the Mall Road here into a garbage dump.

Despite showing an increase of 30 to 40 per cent in tourist arrivals this season, hotel owners said they are forced to turn away prospective customers owing to the shortage of water and occupancy levels have gone down below 50 per cent.

Trying to mitigate the problem, V K Sinha, General Manager, water works department, Mussoorie, said, “The government has formed a committee to look into the demands of striking employees. It will soon take a decision.”

“Till that period, employees should not hold the town to ransom and they should calm down. Tourism forms the lifeline of Mussoorie and this is the peak season,” Mr. Sinha said.