Mamata Banerjee loves flyovers - wants Posta flyover to be ready by February

Kolkata is yet to come out of the problems regarding the Parama flyover and, chief minister Mamata Banetjee, in her eagerness to add another flyover to her feather of achievements, has indicated that the 62-month delayed Burrabazar flyover would be declared open by February 2016. The flyover is hardly 76 percent completed and there are innumerable hurdles that have yet to be resolved.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 18 November 2015.

The chief minister has made the announcement while inaugurating a Jagaddhatri Puja in Posta. Her announcement certainly drew cheers from the crowd but left engineers associated with the Vivekananda Road flyover flummoxed and dumbfounded.
An official of the construction company building the flyover has revealed that there are at least four immediate and major hurdles - one of these is with regard to acquisition of land!! Calcutta Port Trust has not yet granted permission to use a patch of land for the Girish Park-bound ramp.
Other issues that need to be sorted out are - a decision on where the Howrah-bound ramp will land as well as the location of two piers at the Posta crossing. This has not yet been fixed.
Moreover, the work is progressing at a snail pace with five to six hours of construction activity every day ever since the start of the project. This is because of police restrictions which have fixed 11am to 5pm as the time available to work on the flyover.
Consequently, the target date of the chief minister may not be feasible.
The flyover would take off from near the Girish Park-Central Avenue crossing and run above Vivekananda Road and Kali Krishna Tagore Street before branching out in two directions from the Posta crossing. One of the arms would run above Strand Road and approaches Howrah bridge from Posta, the other would be to carry traffic towards Nimtala.
The 2.2-Km flyover has missed eight deadlines since construction started in 2009 and the ninth deadline is scheduled to end this November.
Based on the original timeline, the flyover was to be ready for traffic by August 2010.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

Moody and the Humpty Dumpty syndrome (satire)

Winning elections is not as simple as making tea (satire)

Indian smugglers are celebs, boast of official doubles (satire)


Tea is a health drink - four cups a day can keep the doctors away

No more 'Rent-a-Womb' in India

Tourist bus ploughs into pedestrians in Union Square, San Francisco - 20 injured


Big B attends 21st Kolkata International Film Festival at Netaji Indoor Stadium

Alisha Chinai adds to the glamour quotient at Wembley Stadium

24th James Bond movie 'Spectre' earns USD 300 million in less than two weeks


Jihadi John killed by a 1000-mph missile striking his car

Edmund Fitzgerald sank in the Lake Superior 40 years back with 29 on board

Bomb in Airbus A321 responsible for Sinai Peninsula crash and 224 deaths

Masked gunmen on bikes shoot occupants of Innova car and decamp with Rs 10.31 lakhs

It happened in front of a school when masked gunmen on bikes shot the occupants of a Toyota Innova car and decamped with Rs 10.31 lakhs – the occupants of the car were employees of a firm and they were on their way to the bank to deposit the previous day’s collections.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 13 May 2015.

The incident happened on the busy Andul Road at around 9.15am – as per initial reports, the bike had pulled up next to the car as it slowed down near a school. There were people milling around, they were parents who had come to drop off their children.
One of the bike riders smashed a windowpane of the vehicle and fired thrice and, before anyone realized what had happened, they made away with the bag in which was the money.
The owner of the firm says this was similar to the tragedy that had struck him nearly a decade ago. At that time, his business partner had been gunned down near Vidyasagar Setu as he was on his way to a bank in Burrabazar to deposit money. He was killed when he refused to part with the bag of money.
Police have begun investigation – there are six CCTV cameras are installed on that stretch of Andul Road and they are studying the footage.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.com)

A few more must reads -

Nashik Kumbhmela 2015 – a once in 12-years pilgrimage

Trip to Nashik should take in Shirdi and the Ajanta and Ellora caves

Nashik, a tourist center with links to the epic Ramayana

Nashik, a tourist center with links to the Mahabharata

Kumbhmela 2015 in Nashik – guided tours to wineries and vineyards

Nashik transforms from a place of pilgrimage to an industrial hub


More than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped last year by Boko Haram have vanished

Journey to freedom – 5800 migrants rescued from the Mediterranean

Indonesian smugglers stuff yellow-crested cockatoos into plastic bottles to get past customs

Engineering graduate of Hyderabad goes astray, dies because of links with ISIS

Dozens of corpses found in bamboo cages in Thai human trafficking camp

Quick tour of Delhi by ITDC bus