Thursday, October 16, 2014

KIFF in Najrul Tirtha

I am trying to have one venue of the Kolkata Film Festival 2014 at Nazrul Tirtha. Events will start from 11 Nov 2014. There was an inspection by the technical people of I&CA Department few days ago: they appeared satisfied.
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Here are two clippings:

Times of India dt 16 Oct 2014

Sanmarg dt 13 Oct 2014

5 comments:

  1. I just went on a visit to Krishnanagar, Mayapur and have been to places like Barasat earlier where the E rickshaws have totally invaded the roads. They have created terrific traffic jams. Before embarking on the plan to introduce these vehicles in new town, please make sure they do not turn out to be another type of rickshaw raj similar to what our autos are doing. Please do see to it that new town does not become another of those small towns.

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  2. There are no buses running on internal new town roads. To access the bus stops on the major arterial roads people have only 2 options - 1. walk, 2. take a cycle rickshaw.
    I believe the initiative to allow e-rickshaws on new town internal roads is to eventually replace option 2 with a better alternative. e-rickshaws are faster than ordinary ones and also eco friendly because they do not burn fossil fuels (at least not directly - the fact that most of our electricity comes from burning coal is another matter for discussion)

    There should not be any of the e-rickshaws plying on the major arterial road, aka "biswa banga sarani". i.e. unless they manage to unionize and get some political backing to flout all norms.. just like the auto rickshaws do today all across the city.

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  4. Apart from basic inherent handicaps like limited road spaces, one of the major contributing major factors to traffic jams is the street smartness of us intelligent 'baangalee's. I think it is high time we stop blaming infrastructure and administration for our day-.to-day woes. How many times have we passenger chided the auto driver for bending/breaking traffic rules (as long as we are reaching our destination earlier)? The most that the administration may be accused of is non-implementation of existing rules (and that could possibly be classified as dereliction of duty)!

    What the administration can do is to plan and provide the infrastructure for regulating the affair. Say designating routes, setting charge bands, constructing & maintaining rickshaw stands fine tuned to the overall traffic management plan (synchronized with bus stops and metro stations), registering all e-rickshawallahs with Police (security issue), so on and so forth. And, finally, implementing the rules and regulations once the politicians have stepped in.

    But what happens in our country is that rules/regulations/guidelines follow (not precede) population settlement and practicality-induced infrastructure development. Hope New town bucks the trend. But as is said --- the more things change, the more they remain the same! So keep finger crossed.

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  5. We all know how much hard work you given to make New town as smart city. Even ever we enter Newtown we find Clean and green Roads, ultra-modern building, flyover, park, proper traffic rules and excellent maintenance. Newtown is the cleanest part of Kolkata. We are proud of Newtown and we are proud for you too. And we salute Mamata Banerjee for taking proper steps to clean your city, Kolkata.
    But Sir with due respect I would like to say that govt is neglecting the most important part of city, ignoring the most crucial part of our town. THE GATEWAYS OF KOLKATA.
    Kolkata has total 7 gateways . Airport, Jessor Road, Howrah Station, Sealdha Station, Kolkata Station, Shalimar Station, Santragachi station and Kona Expressway. Apart from Santragachi station and Kona Expressway all other GATEWAYS ARE COMPLETELY MESSED UP.
    Last year Kolkata got the brand new airport terminal. The terminal is a pride for kolkatans. The Airport area is maintained perfectly. But the moment we step out from Airport zone and enter VIP ROAD we find dirt , dirt and dirt, complete nuisance . VIP road became one of the ugliest and dirtiest part of our city. No maintenance nothing. It’s a complete mess.
    People are peeing both side of Road. Garbage dumped both side of road even sometime on road also. Broken Trident light and non-illuminating street lights. Unmaintained boulevard, illegal parking of Bus, Auto, Taxi, Rickshaw. Eye shore hoarding No traffic rules, no lane maintaining, no footpath. No green area no trees. No beautification work happened as of now. It’s a shame for us having Airport Approach road like this.
    Forget about cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune. Even tier II tier III cites like Bhopal, Coimbatore, Vizag, Bhubaneswar has better Airport approach road and better gateways.
    I ask you why? Why this negligence? When govt is improving city’s maximum roads, beautification work is going on throughout the city then we all gateways are neglecting so much??
    The same situation with other gateways also. Howrah station which consider as a heritage zone is wrapped up with Garbage , hawkers and urine. The entire area is covered with Hawkers now. People are literally Peeing on the middle of road and boulevard . Even hawkers are doing business over Howrah Bridge also. Howrah bridge which is the most famous tourist spot in Kolkata, which the most visited place in Kolkata and which is the busiest cantilever bridge in the world , is controlling by Hawkers , touts and goons. Police is there in the bridge but they are busy to take bribes from lorry and bus.
    We all know that you are not that typical Government officers who say it’s not in our department so we cant help you. In our opinion you the best working Govt office in your city. That’s why I’m trying bring our the major issue in your notice.
    I’m doing this not for me, not for you, for us. For your love KOLKATA. So please sir it’s a humble from us to improve the situation of all Gateways in Kolkata. Lets make Kolkata a true clean city a true Tillotama.

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