Infrastructure

An archive was made in Bankim's house, where various items related to his memorial are displayed there, the house was his ancestral home. He wrote many of his excellent literature and other works in this house. Readers' of Bankim often visited this home to offer their respect and also came to see the items on display.

Earlier a research centre was set up by a group of his admirers, who had taken an initiative earlier to repair his home which was in a dilapidated condition. The museum is presently situated in the ground floor of his house. But the authorities of the research centre wanted to expand the museum. "A third floor will be made in the building for his museum. We have three kathas of land here to build a museum in his name," said an official of the research centre.

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhya (1838-94), was an Indian nationalist writer, from Bengal. He also popularised a Bengali prose style that became the vehicle of the major nationalist literature of the region. In 1872 he founded the Bangadarshan, a journal, modelled on the Spectator which was published from this house. He frequently used the pseudonym Ramchandra and also wrote many novels in this home, which combined political and philosophical commentary with historical romance. His favourite theme was India as a divine motherland.

KMC has listed some of the clubs it plans to crack the whip against. According to mayor Bikash Bhattacharya, although these clubs have been doing roaring business, the civic body has not been getting its share of revenue. Besides, some clubs have been building amenities without sanction from the KMC.

Dakshin Kalikata Sansad (DKS) is a case in point. Located at Deshapriya Park, it is one of south Kolkata’s better known large parks. An angry Bhattacharya said the club had broken all rules to create wealth and special amenities for its 1,200-plus members. He looked visibly angry when he spoke about DKS setting up a bar and a beauty parlour without informing KMC.

“As the club authorities managed to get a licence from the excise department, they went ahead and set up a bar for their members, keeping us in the dark. Similarly, DKS did not obtain permission from KMC to convert one of its rooms into a beauty parlour. Now, we want to shut down both the bar and the parlour,” Bhattacharya said, adding that notices would be served on the club to shut these facilities.

The mayor said the DKS authorities were crying foul as KMC was about to take stern action against them. “I have been getting calls from VIPs and influential people, requesting me not to take any drastic action against the club. However, I have told them that KMC would be guided by civic rules only.”

As India's public spending has been constrained by large budget deficit, a substantial portion of investment in infrastructure will come from private sector, report said. It further mentioned that public-private partnership has emerged as an effective method to attract private investment in infrastructure. By 2006, the government had awarded 86 PPP contracts.

Though the Sunderban area already has a development board, the corporation is expected to help in the development of big infrastructure in the area, which has remained an unfulfilled task for years.

“The Sunderban Development Board will take care of infrastructure and will implement various social sector schemes such as plantation of mangroves and schemes related to agriculture and livelihood. The corporation will also be able to take up construction projects like building bridges,” a senior official said.

Besides constructing concrete roads, bridges and providing basic amenities, the corporation will also collect tolls after it builds the bridges.

The East Kolkata Wetland Management Authority (EKWMA), formed by the state government, has been assigned the job of protecting the sprawling 12,500-hectare East Kolkata Wetlands.

Hidco authorities said nearly 500 hectares of New Town's 3,779 hectares comprises waterbodies. Following court orders, the authorities are trying to develop and protect the wetland. Since any work on developing wetland is thoroughly scrutinised, Hidco will follow guidelines laid down by the newly constituted wetland management authority.

"If the authority asks us to develop wetlands by setting up recreational centres there, we will do so," said Gautam Deb, housing minister and Hidco chairman.

EKWMA officials said the agency will keep vigil on work undertaken to protect and develop the wetlands. "The wetland in Rajarhat is not exactly inside the East Kolkata Wetlands. But we will see how it can be protected and developed," said an official.

State IT minister Debesh Das said the plot is owned by a company and its promoter "has shown interest to develop an IT park on it. We are in touch with him to discuss the project cost".

Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant told TOI that plant construction time at Singur in Hooghly needed to be minimised if the firm intends to roll out the small car in time. Chairman Ratan Tata had set his team a mid-2008 deadline.

"If the land is handed over before the year-end, we will have just 18 months before the roll-out deadline. That's cutting things very fine. We're looking for measures to offset the time constraints," Kant said.

The plant will include engine and transformer manufacturing units, press shop, paint shop and assembly line. The site will also host a vendor park for 50-60 ancillary manufacturers.

Political protests against acquisition of agricultural land at Singur have sparked delay fears. Worried Tata Motors officials launched a massive public relations exercise to showcase the group's human face and its corporate social responsibility record.

Behind-the-scenes, officials were frantically reworking the project blueprint to incorporate timereduction techniques like use of pref ab r i c at e d structurals. Talks were on with technology partners and vendors to compress the car production process. At full-throttle, the plant will offer 2,000 direct jobs and generate indirect employment for 7,000.

When Kant said Tata Motors `may' look elsewhere if land was not made available by December, it was a reflection of a situation that is getting desperate. Compared to the new mini-truck Ace plant at Uttaranchal that will be commissioned in 15 months, the Singur plant is a different proposition as it is a new car.

"Not only is the Singur plant crucial for the car's timely launch, its acceptance in the area is important as it will be the mother plant where car's engines and transmissions and body panels will be manufactured for distributed manufacturing units elsewhere," Kant said.

The car will be shipped in a knocked-down format to these company-owned or contracted mini-assembly units.

The death toll is expected to rise. Finance minister Asim Dasgupta said it was a situation of concern.

On Friday, Dasgupta held a meeting at Writers' Building with relief minister Mortoza Hossain, irrigation minister Subhas Naskar and civil defence minister Srikumar Mukherjee to draw up a relief plan. The immediate outcome was the allocation of an additional Rs 8.5 crore to the relief fund, taking the total amount to Rs 17 crore.

Dasgupta said the chief minister was being kept updated on the situation. Not only marooned villages, even Kolkata needed relief supplies. Boats took drinking water to Amherst Street and Mominpur.

According to Hossain, relief materials, especially baby food and clothes are being ferried to all the affected areas. Boats have been readied and relief workers alerted so that they can promptly be deployed wherever there is need, added Mukherjee.

With this, the total number of SEZs approved by the Union government has gone up to 164.

A month back, the empowered group of ministers (e-GOM) headed by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee had lifted the cap on allowing SEZs that was earlier set at 150.

The panel had, however, put a rider on fresh approvals. Following reported resistance of Finance Minister P. Chidambaram citing revenue implications, the e-GOM had decided not to go ahead with fresh cases before at least 75 zones take off on the ground.

The panel had also decided to review the policy norms within five-six months before allowing the Commerce Ministry to approve fresh proposals for SEZs.

Commerce Minister Kamal Nath too had stated that though the cap on the number of SEZs had been lifted, new approvals have to wait till 75 zones take off on the ground. Yet, the BOA headed by Special Secretary in the Commerce Ministry Gopal Pillai cleared 14 new proposals, said a Finance Ministry official who requested anonymity.

However, Commerce Secretary S.N. Menon said: "there is no such rider for approving fresh cases".

The three projects for which KMDA will soon float tenders are the E M Bypass beautification plan, the Prince Anwar Shah Road connector from Jadavpur to E M Bypass and the BBD Bag area rejuvenation work. All these projects will be implemented under the the National Urban Renewable Mission (NURM) scheme. We hope to start work on these projects just after the Pujas, said a KMDA official.

Tenders will also be floated for setting up a sewerage treatment plant at Budge Budge. The National River Conservancy directorate under the Union ministry of environment and forest has already granted around Rs 2 crore for the project.

The EM Bypass beautification project i nvo l ve s beautifying both sides of the 17-km stretch from Ultadanga to Garia by planting trees, widening the stretch, setting up guard rails and road dividers.

Work on the much-delayed Prince Anwar Shah Road connector will also begin. This project has been stalled for several years as there was a church on the proposed alignment. The building was demolished earlier this year after getting a High Court nod.

The state is also working on plans to rej u ve n at e the BBD Bag area.

State urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya said Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and KMDA will look into waterlogging problems in the city and surrounding areas. The KMDA is already working on improving the drainage system on the E M Bypass stretch.

In fact, KMDA authorities have already started work on revamping the drainage system on the EM Bypass stretch, particularly at the Park Circus connector and Rashbehari connector junctions.

It has been seen that areas near the Park Circus and the Rashbehari connector on E M Bypass get clogged during the monsoon. The authorities are gearing up to start revamping the drainage system of the areas.

It would cost around Rs 6 crore to take up work on improving the drainage system at these two junctions on E M Bypass, said an official.

State commerce and industries minister Nirupam Sen said development of an eastern link highway connecting national highways 34 and 117, setting up of a health city near Sonarpur and an agro-business-cum-border trade park at Siliguri also formed part of this exercise.

Sen said a joint venture between West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) would be responsible for giving shape to these projects and later helping in the formation of special purpose vehicles (SPV) to implement these ventures.

"The flyovers have led to a considerable amount of saving, both in terms of time and fuel," a senior transport department official said. A report to this effect, drawn up by the Transportation Planning and Traffic Engineering Directorate, has been submitted to the Japan Bank of International Cooperation, the funding agency of the AJC Bose Road, Gariahat, Park Street and Lock Gate Road flyovers.

"The study compares the traffic volume and dispersal time before the flyovers were built with the current situation. Our report talks of the rich dividends they've yielded," said chief traffic and transportation engineer B.K. Sadhu. The flyovers, the report says, have brought about a qualitative change" in the traffic management of these stretches, once plagued by traffic chaos.

Eastern Railway general manager Shyam Kumar inaugurated 14 computerised UTS counters in Sealdah and 27 in Howrah. With this, the total number of UTS counters in Sealdah and Howrah touched 36 and 58, respectively.

"From these counters, people can buy unreserved tickets to anywhere in the country. These will cater to at least 12,000 commuters an hour and are expected to increase our revenues," Kumar said.

The process of converting the conventional self-printing ticketing system into UTS was started in February 2004, with the opening of five unreserved ticketing counters in Howrah and Sealdah each.

"The total project cost is about Rs 40 lakh," Kumar said. "This is not an old wine in a new bottle; the bottle was partially empty, today we filled it to the brim. The day's programme is more of a closing ceremony."