by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
Srinagar : A Kolkata-based company carrying out dredging in the Jhelum River to save Srinagar city from future floods has lodged a police complaint against miscreants who vandalized its valuable machinery, a company official said on Tuesday.
The Reach Dredging Ltd (RDL) official said that the miscreants vandalized their equipment while dredging work was on in Shivpora area on Monday.
“Resorting to violence, the miscreants have damaged our valuable equipment worth millions of rupees. We have lodged an FIR in Ram Munshibagh police station of Srinagar and requested police to bring the culprits to justice,” the official said.
The RDL official said that their trained technical staff operating the dredging machinery etc are feeling harassed after the incident.
The RDL was given the contract for lowering the river bed after the unprecedented floods in 2014 to increase the water carrying capacity of the river and save Srinagar city from future flooding.
In its work, it also provides employment to scores of local skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labourers.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Corporate, Corporate Governance, Economy, Markets, News, Politics
By Milinda Ghosh Roy,
Kolkata : In a bid to showcase internationally the city’s rich heritage and passion for football, the West Bengal government has come up with a bouquet of initiatives, from guided tours to screening short documentaries, during the U-17 World Cup in which 24 countries are participating.
The eastern metropolis, a key host venue of the six-venue tourney across India, is slated to hold 10 games, including the October 28 final at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan — also called Salt Lake Stadium. The FIFA headquarters for the competition has also been set up here, with 60 delegates from the globe’s apex soccer body camping in the city.
Besides, Kolkata has been adjudged the referee hub and the training centre for rookie referees.
As the city gears up for the country’s biggest football extravaganza, with four foreign teams arriving here with a few thousand of their supporters, the state government is keen to provide a taste of Kolkata to the guests from abroad.
The state Information and Cultural Affairs Department is planning to screen documentaries, two to five minutes long, on various aspects of Kolkata and its cultural heritage in between the matches and during the half-time intervals in the stadium.
The first two matches in the city are scheduled for October 8.
“We plan to run short documentaries on our city on the giant screens available in the stadium in between the matches or during the half-time intervals. The length of these films will be decided after discussing with the FIFA officials,” Minister of State for Information and Cultural Affairs Indranil Sen told IANS.
“Kolkata has a wonderful cultural heritage and its love for football is eternal. These snippets and documentaries would help our foreign guests get acquainted with the city in a better way,” he said.
With England, Chile, Mexico, Iraq, Japan and New Caledonia playing in Kolkata, the state tourism department has taken various initiatives to promote tourism in and around the city before the foreign and delegates.
The FIFA tournament is being highlighted as a major event happening in the state on the West Bengal Tourism Department’s website, and leaflets and advertisements of Bengal tourism have been circulated among the major city hotels that would become the temporary address of the football fans from abroad.
According to tourism officials, the department has engaged a number of tour guides — christened “atithi bandhus” — who would take the tourists to iconic places in the city like College street, Victoria Memorial, Kalighat temple and the house of Mother Teresa.
Tourism and hospitality students from the city have been chosen as atithi bandhus and given a guided tour of the city alongside the necessary training in soft skills to attend to the foreign guests interested in avaiing their services.
“The atithi bandhu is a new concept. We have chosen young boys and girls from tourism and hospitality institutes and held an orientation programme for them,” Tourism Secretary Atri Bhattacharya told IANS.
“The students were trained in soft skills, foreign languages and culture. Their contact details have been updated on the Tourism Department’s website so that the people interested in engaging them can directly get in touch with them,” he added.
The Tourism Department is also in discussions with various consulates to arrange tours for the players and officials staying in the city for the tournament.
“So many players, coaches, officials would be coming here during the tournament. It is an honour for the state to have organised such an event. We are in discussions with various consulates so that some tours of Kolkata and its surrounding areas can be arranged for them,” Tourism Minister Gautam Deb told IANS.
He said the department is also planning online and offline advertisements to promote the diverse tourist destinations around the state.
Youngsters who have registered themselves as atithi bandhus are equally excited about the opportunity.
“It is not every day you get a chance to interact with so many people from other countries. I love my city and it is a great opportunity to introduce our guests to our wonderful City of Joy,” said Sreya Biswas, a tourism student at a Kolkata college who is looking forward to being an atithi bandhu.
(Milinda Ghosh Roy can be contacted at milinda.g@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, News
Kolkata, (IANS) Plagued by delays caused by land acquisition, slum relocation and route alignment issues, the project cost of the Kolkata East West Metro has now shot up 1.85 times over the original estimate of Rs 4,875.85 crore, officials said here on Saturday.
The 16.6 km long metro, part of which passes under the Hooghly river – the first such river crossing in the country, is now estimated to cost Rs 8996.96 crore, according to authorities of the implementing agency Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Limited.
“The revised cost of the two-phase project is Rs 8996.96 crore, up from around Rs 4.900 crore, Rs 4875.85 crore – to be exact,” KMRC managing director Satish Kumar told media persons here.
The original project cost was sanctioned on July 30, 2008, when the KMRC was registered.
Kumar said the first phase of the project covering 9.4 km and connecting the IT hub of Salt Lake Sector V with Sealdah station, is expected to be completed by June 2018.
The target date for completion of the second phase, traversing a distance of 7.2 km and connecting Sealdah with Howrah Maidan, is August 2019.
The Metro project – connecting two of the world’s busiest railway stations Sealdah and Howrah – was originally slated to be operational by 2012, but the date was later pushed back to October, 2014, and then to 2015.
Over 50 percent of the work in phase 1 and six percent in phase two has been completed.
The first phase had run into problems at Duttabad in Salt Lake after several of the slum dwellers refused relocation, but the hurdle has now been cleared and work was in progress for constructing permanent rehabilitation centres for them.
In the second phase, problems had cropped up with regard to the route running close to heritage buildings like Raj Bhavan. The route also fell under the blue zone of the army.
“Now we have gone for a realignment between Mahakaran and Sealdah stations. This has moved the route further from the heritage structure. And it now falls under the area earmarked as yellow zone by the army.
“We have applied for the necessary permissions from the Eastern Command and the Archaeological Survey of India. We think now there shouldn’t be any problem,” said Kumar.
The realignment cost an additional Rs 780 crore.
Also, relocation of some shops of Sri Market in Howrah was also on.
He said the Sealdah station will be completed by December 2017.
In line with the Make In India initiative of the central government, the tender for procurement of 84 coaches – 14 cars with six coaches in each – was awarded to Bharat Earth Movers Limited in February this year. AThe total cost would be Rs 900 crore.
“The rakes will start coming by September next year. Hopefully, if we can reduce the timing, then we can start the trial run earlier. And then the first phase can be completed before schedule,” he said.
The project has a total elevated portion of 5.8 km, while the underground part covers 10.8 km. The entire phase two runs underground.
After the realignment, the projected daily passenger load is expected to go up to seven lakh in 2020, 8.10 lakh in 2025 and nine lakh in 2035. The total number of stations is 12 – six elevated, six underground.
In phase one, the authorities have completed entire twin tunneling of 2.73 km upto Sealdah and construction of elevated and underground stations are in progress.
A salient feature of the project lies in the fact that it is the first metro in India under a river. The crown of tunnel below water level of Hooghly will be 26 m and the length of river crossing around 520 m.
“We have started first of the twin tunnels at Howrah Maidan from April, and this tunnel will cross river Hooghly at a depth of 30 m from ground level where depth of water is 13 m. This unique tunnel of continuous drive of 2.9 km will break through at Mahakaran station in June, 2017,” said Kumar.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, News
Kolkata (IANS) Coal India would tentatively offer over 79 million tonnes of coal for e-auction for power producers and also for non-power sector consumers in the August to March period of the current fiscal, the state-run mining company announced.
The coal company notified tentative schedule for “information and advance planning by the prospective consumers”.
Of the total coal to be offered, over 63 million tonnes will be offered for special forward e-auction for power producers and 16 million tonnes will be earmarked for exclusive e-auction for non-power consumers.
The notice said over 33 million tonnes of coal to be auctioned for power producers under special forward e-auction will be made available through road transport and over 29 million tonnes will be sent by rail.
A total of 7,683 rakes will be used to transport coal.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Buzz
Kolkata:(IANS) Nepal Airlines is likely to resume direct flights between Kolkata and Kathmandu by October-November, Nepal’s envoy to India Deep Kumar Upadhyay said on Friday.
“To begin with it will be thrice a week and the frequency may increase based on the volume of business,” he told the media here on the sidelines of an event organised by CII.
The carrier will operate the narrow-bodied Airbus A320 which has a seating capacity of 160.
“Flight services were stopped three years earlier due to lack of aircraft,” he said.
Nepal Airlines has direct flight services to Kathmandu from New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
As of now, only Air India operates direct flights between Kolkata and Kathmandu.
According to the envoy, the proposed trade route across Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) is expected to be operational by next month.
“There were some procedural issues like stamping of vehicles, registration of the same and so on, which had to be sorted out. Hopefully, by next month the vehicular and goods movement should start,” he said.
