TIMES CITY

THE TIMES OF INDIA, KOLKATA | FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2014

ENFORCEMENT DIRECTORATE STARTS PROBE TO

TRACK TERROR MONEY TRAIL | 4

ESPLANADE, BABUGHAT BUS TERMINI TO SHIFT TO

SANTRAGACHHI, GORAGACHHA IN NOVEMBER | 5

PLUCKED FROM THE JAWS OF DEATH

he New Market Simpark was the

scene of a life-and-death struggle
on Thursday evening as a worker got
trapped under a car lift, and firemen
and disaster rescue personnel strained
every nerve and sinew to get him out

before it crushed him to death. TOI

photographer Sudipto Das was there
every minute of the heart-stopping
rescue.
Subhankar Deyasi, 28, was repairing one of the giant lifts that move

cars when it collapsed on him around

8.30pm. It seems he was squatting on
the floor when the lift made a cracking
noise and crashed on him. He instinctively jumped out of the way but
his legs got caught under the heavy

platform, said a police officer.

Local residents Vishal Khatik, Rajiv
Sahani, Ashish Rout and Anwar Alam
were among the first to respond to his
screams for help. We called police
and ran down the stairs to help him. A

lifted the platform barely enough to

pull him free around 9.30pm. When we
finally got him out, his right leg seemed
shredded and the left leg appeared
fractured, said a rescuer. He was
taken to hospital. SHOUNAK GHOSAL

witness fainted on seeing his injuries,

said Rajiv. Firemen tried to drill through
the beam but could not. All the time
Subhankar kept screaming in agony.
Finally, rescuers got a portable crane
inside and with the help of crowbars

East-West Metro work gets rolling

Tunnel Boring To Start In Six Months; KMRC Awaiting Nod From Some Agencies
Pics: Koushik Koley

Krishnendu.Bandyopadhyay
@timesgroup.com

Kolkata/Howrah: As directed by the

high court, work on the East-West Metro
did start on Lakshmi Puja but Afcons
Transtonnelstroy, the agency entrusted
with the underground tunnel construction, may take another six months to
press the tunnel-boring machines
(TBM) into service.
According to sources, assembling
the TBMs and lowering them into the
ground itself takes months. Also, the
project needs clearance from various
agencies before it can actually start boring the tunnel.
Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation
(KMRC), however, has its hands full. To
begin with, it has dashed a series of letters to Kolkata Police, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC), Kolkata Port
Trust (KoPT), Hooghly Nadi Janapath
Paribahan Samity and underground
utilities like BSNL and CESC seeking
clearances.
As per the court directive, KMRC is
working on the original alignment:
Howrah Maidan to Salt Lake via Howrah Station, Mahakaran, Central (Bow-

PACKED

SCHEDULE

E-W CORRIDOR
Howrah
Station

Oct 7, 2014 |
Coordination
meetings with HMC
and Howrah City
Police

Metro workers on Thursday unwrapped the tunnel boring machines lying idle for
months on the Howrah side and started assembling the parts

bazar), Sealdah, Phoolbagan, Salt Lake

Stadium, Bengal Chemical, City Centre,
Central Park, Karunamoyee and Sector
V. From October 13 to 28, Afcons will run
a GPS survey along the alignment from
Maidan to Central station to check if
there has been any new encroachment.
Before lowering the TBM, KMRC

would lay water pipeline, widen G T

Road, remove encroachment along the
Bangabasi-Howrah Maidan stretch and
relay a link road between Nityadhan
Road and Rishi Bankim flyover, which
connects Howrah with Howrah station.
Laying of 170-meter water pipeline will
disrupt water supply to Howrah City

twice first on October 19 and then on

December 17.
The project will change of the face
of the citys transportation. We will ex-

Bengal
Chemical

Mahakaran

City
centre

Central
Park

Phoolbagan
Sector V

Oct 13-28 | GPS

survey along route
from Howrah Maidan
to Central

Howrah
Maidan

Oct 15-Nov 15 |
Widening of GT Road
and laying of pipeline

Dec 1 | To take
possession of
Central station site

Salt Lake
Stadium

Central

tend all cooperation for its speedy implementation, said Sailesh Rai, vicechairman of Howrah Municipal Corporation trade development zone.
Rais excitement over the project was
not without reason. Work on the EastWest corridor has been resumed after
one-and-a-half years. The state governments insistence on realignment delayed the project and pushed up its cost
to nearly Rs 6,500 crore from Rs 4,874
crore. Afcons Transtonnelstroy, the
joint venture firm entrusted with the
work from Howrah Maidan to Central,
has submitted an bill of Rs 320 crore, an

Karunamoyee

Sealdah
Jan 15 | TBM to
start rolling from
Sealdah end

Apr 1 |
Lowering of TBM
at Maidan end

extra expenditure it incurred during the

idle period. Maintenance of each TBM
cost Rs 2-3 lakh per month. Four TBMs
have been gathering dust all this while
for the uncertainty over the alignment.
Ever since the realignment was proposed, agencies involved in the project
raised objection as it would entail a cost
escalation of Rs 1,200 crore. Japan International Cooperation Agency, the principal funding agency for the project,
agreed to lend up to Rs 2,531 crore of the
Rs 4,874-crore project through a 20-year
loan, bearing an annual interest rate of
1.2-1.4%.

JU teachers wont boycott class Hudhud veers towards Vizag

TOI

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kolkata: On paper, Jadavpur University

teachers want Abhijit Chakrabarti to put
in his papers and bring the university
back to normal. But the stubborn stance
showed signs of a climbdown at the Jadavpur University Teachers Association (Juta) meeting on Thursday.
Things are not similar to pre-Puja
days when 400-odd teachers submitted a
memorandum to chancellor Keshari
Nath Tripathi against appointing Abhijit
Chakrabarti as the full-time VC. At least
the attendance of Juta members, which
came down to 50 on Thursday, hinted so.
Sensing the mood, Chakrabarti is
planning to publish an appeal in all leading dailies to address the larger audience
teachers, students, non-teaching
staff, officers, guardians and above all,
those people who had resented the police
crackdown.
In the meantime, the VC has requested
the deans of faculties to speak to all department heads to resume classes when
the university re-opens on October 13.
The VC is framing the advertisement in
consultation with the registrar. Though it
will remind all stakeholders about what
the high court had earlier said about
maintaining normalcy on campus, the
words are being carefully chosen so as not

Juta secretary Nilanjana Gupta, who

addressed the Gana Convention before
the Puja (above), said on Thursday that
teachers will continue to boycott the VC

to hurt any sentiment, said a JU teacher.

Sensing the move, the Juta clarified
that they didnt call for a class boycott, the
students did. Some members also said
that they were ready to take classes if students were willing. However, they will
avoid meeting the VC for the moment and
instead communicate with the registrar
to voice their grievances.
Addressing a press meet, Juta secretary Nilanjana Gupta said teachers will continue to boycott the vice-chancellor with-

out harming the students interests. We

shall stop functioning in committees that
are not directly related to students. But we
shall continue to be part of those serving
students interests. The fact remains that
Abhijit Chakrabarti is our VC. He has got
some responsibilities just as we do. We expect him to function democratically and
help us perform better, said Gupta.
The focus of the teachers agitation
has instead shifted from the VCs resignation to the vigilance at university gates.
On Monday, we shall submit an application to the registrar asking him not to go
beyond the court order to implement the
entry regulations. The court, for instance,
didnt ask for police posting at the gates.
Students and teachers are being asked for
identity cards even though all of them
dont have them. They are being interrogated as if they are sneaking into the campus to commit a crime. Few of our firstyear students, research scholars and evening course students have no identity
cards. So, we will ask the registrar to appeal to the court that the order cant be implemented till the university is ready with
the proper infrastructure, said Gupta.
The Juta will organize a protest procession on October 16. It will be followed by
the convention on October 21, which will
be attended by students, teachers, parents
and the non-teaching staff.

Sumati Yengkhom & Jayanta Gupta

WHAT
LIES
AHEAD

TNN

Kolkata: Cyclone Hudhud has turned into a severe cyclonic storm (SCS) and is
steaming towards the Andhra Pradesh
coast. If it sticks to its present course, Hudhud will cross the north Andhra Pradesh
coast around Visakhapatnam by Sunday forenoon. According to the Regional
Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Kolkata,
coastal Bengal and parts of south Bengal
will start feeling the impact from Saturday.
Kolkata is expected to get light to moderate
rain while coastal Bengal will be lashed by
heavy rain in the weekend.
However, there is some confusion over
Hudhuds severity with senior mariners
disputing the Indian Meteorological Departments version.
At 2.30pm on Thursday, the SCS was located about 700km southeast of Gopalpur.
Its sustained surface wind speed, as calculated by the IMD, was 90-100 kmph, gusting
to 110 kmph, on Thursday afternoon. At
5.30am on Friday, the wind speed is expected to cross 150kmph.
We expect widespread rain in south
Bengal on Saturday and Sunday. While
Kolkata will get light to moderate rain,
coastal districts, specially South 24-Parganas, East and West Midnapore will experience heavy rain, said G C Debnath, director, RMC-Kolkata.

Date/Time

Wind speed
(kmph)

Category

(Latitude/ longitude)

Position

OCT 10 (5.30)

14.5/87.6

120-130

VSCS

OCT 10 (17.30)

15.0/86.7

130-140

VSCS

OCT 11 (5.30)

15.6/85.7

130-140

VSCS

OCT 11 (17.30)

16.5/84.5

130-140

VSCS

OCT 12 (5.30)

17.3/83.5

130-140

VSCS

OCT 12 (17.30)

18.0/82.5

80-90

CS

OCT 13 (5.30)

18.8/81.4

50-60

DD

OCT 13 (17.30)

19.6/80.6

30-40

VSCS: Very Severe Cyclonic Storm | CS: Cyclonic

Storm | DD: Deep Depression | D: Depression
Source: IMD
According to a senior Kolkata Port
Trust (KoPT) official though, the eye of the
storm hadnt formed till Thursday evening and it was still a deep depression.
Clouds are widespread and some have already reached the mainland. Had it already developed into an SCS , the clouds
would have gathered around the central
portion. Moreover, the barometer hasnt
dropped sufficiently. If the storm remains
stationary or moves very slowly in the
next couple of days, it may develop into an
SCS though. We are monitoring the situa-

tion, he said.
Officials of South Eastern Railway
(SER) and East Coast Railway (ECoR) are
keeping their fingers crossed. We will
take a call only after Friday evening. SER
and ECoR are coordinating and monitoring IMD forecasts and the course of the cyclone. If the severity is high, trains between south and east India may have to be
diverted via Jharsuguda. Some trains may
also have to be short-terminated or cancelled, said Soumitra Majumdar, chief
passenger transportation manager, SER.

Navy healing touch for Lascar memorial on WW I centenary

Subhro.Niyogi@timesgroup.com

Kolkata: A little known yet majestic war memorial tucked away at

an obscure corner in the city
is being restored by the Navy to
honour Indian seafarers who
died during World War I that began
100 years ago.
Located in Hastings along the
eastern bank of the Hooghly, the
Lascar War Memorial a tower
with gilt dome and four mini minarets resembles the victory tower
at Chittor. A vessels prow projects
from each side. Under the prow are
undulating lines symbolizing
waves. Lascar refer to men who
were at the wheel or on the deck of
merchant ships.
The memorial designed by British architect William Ingram Keir
(who replaced the spire of St Pauls
Cathedral with a tower after it was
damaged in an earthquake in 1934)

was unveiled by Bengal's governor

Lord Lytton in 1924. At 100 feet, it
was the tallest monument after the
157ft Sahid Minar. After Independence, the magnificent memorial
built to honour 896 seamen on merchant ships who died between 1914
and 1918 was practically forgotten
and lay in utter neglect till a naval
officer spotted it in 1994.
Overgrowth had camouflaged
the memorial. The ground was
used as a parking lot for trucks.
First, we looked into the lands
ownership and found it lay with
the Army. Since the memorial was
for seafarers, the ownership was
transferred to the Navy and the memorial was restored, recounted
Commodore (retd) B K Mohanti.
In the 15 years that have passed
since the restoration, the weatherravaged memorial has had a fresh
coat of paint now and then but not
undergone any major repairs.

Pics: Subhojyoti Kanjilal

STANDING TALL
GLORIOUS DEAD CENOTAPH
Built in 1924 opposite the
Netaji statue on Maidan.
Architect Herbert
William Palliser
designed it on the
lines of the Cenotaph
at Whitehall, London.
Its meant primarily
for the British
and Anglo-Indian
soldiers from the
city who died in
the war

Commodore Ravi Ahluwalia has

undertaken the Rs 30-lakh
repair-cum-restoration project of
the Lascar War Memorial

BENGALEE WAR MEMORIAL

Erected
at College
Square in
memory of
officers and
soldiers of
the 49th
Bengalees,
the only
infantry
regiment to
be raised
from the state. Inscribed on
the marble shaft placed on a
pedestal are the words: In
memory of members of The
45th Bengalee Regiment who
died in the Great War, 19141919, To the Glory of God, King
and Country. It has 56 names
of sepoys, subedars and lance
naiks

Commodore Ravi Ahluwalia, who

is currently in charge, has undertaking a Rs 30 lakh repair-cum-restoration project to be completed by
the first week of November so that
a memorial service will be held on
November 9.
Some time ago, we worked
with Intach to bring out the inlay
work on the floor that had been covered by paint. We have completed
most of the repairs and are now
working on illumination. Old halogen lights will be replaced by LEDs.
They will be programmed to
change colour. Once the sequence
is decided, the naval band will compose a martial music to match the
cadence. We also want the Tricolour to be projected on the monument facade on special days and organize programmes befitting the
occasion, said Commodore Ahluwalia.
He also plans to put in place a re-

corded commentary of the monument and display photographs of

naval vessels from World War I inside the monument. Ahluwalia
hopes these measures will help
highlight the Lascar War Memorial that hardly gets any visitors
now because it lies off the beaten
track. Incidentally, the Princep
Ghat was similarly in ruins and
had nearly been forgotten before it
was restored and popularized
through cultural events.
Intach Kolkata chapter convener GM Kapur, who is assisting the
Navy in the project, lauded the
Commodore Ahluwalia's initiative. We are glad the Navy has taken interest in restoring the memorial. The Navy has a heritage fund
that had never been used in Kolkata because they thought there was
nothing of significance in the city.
The Commodore has managed to
tap into the fund, said Kapur.