THE TIMES OF INDIA, KOLKATA *WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2013 5TIMES CITY

Kolkata: Three years sincethe Jnaneshwari train disas-ter on May 28, 2010, UK doctor Narinder Kapur stillremembers the twins whodied on their way to the firstvacation of their life.

He was so moved aftergoing through a TOI reporton the seven-year-old sistersthat professor Kapur made ita point to visit their schoolduring his maiden visit to the city. Not only that, thebrain doctor also gifted a syn-thesizer to the Jewish Girls’School on Tuesday in memo-ry of the twins.

Twins Shirin and Shar-min were headed for Mumbaion their first ever vacationwith their parents SayedJaved Alam (35) and Sabiya(30). But as fate would have it,the whole family was wiped

out in the worst-ever traintragedy that claimed 147lives. The parents, who them-selves were school teachers,had saved up for years to taketheir kids out on vacation. .

“I was really moved by thetragic end of the two sisterswhich Igot to readin theTimes ofIndia. Iregularlythought ofShirinand Shar-min andpromisedto myselfthat if I ever set foot in Kolka-ta, I would visit their schooland donate something intheir memory. That finallyhas happened,” said the neu-ropsychologist who was inKolkata to attend a six-day

workshopon develop-ing trainedprofes-sionals for

managing brain injury. Ka-pur visited the school withwife Ritu.

Shirin and Sharmin werestudents of Class II at thePark Street street schoolwhen the accident occurred.

Known as lively, chirpy andwitty, the girls had never goneholidaying. Their parentshad been saving for few yearsto fulfill wishes of the twodaughters. The girls wereover the moon on their firsttrain ride not knowing that itwould also become their lastjourney in just about threehours after the train chuggedout of Howrah station.

“The twin sisters werefun loving and lively. Theirtragic end came as a rudeshock for the school,” saidAfine M Cohen, vice-princi-pal Jewish Girls’ School.

“The synthesizer will beof great use to students intheir music lessons,” saidprincipal Apala Datta.

While Kapur’s gesturemay seem out-of-the box tosome, the devout Gandhi fol-lower admits that the kids’ or-deal helped him standthrough a tough-phase in hisown life.

“When I contrasted mysituation with that of thetwins, their ordeal inspiredme to make the most of whatlife has given to me,” said the former president of Brit-ish Neuropsychological So-ciety. Kapur also contributedto the fund of Acid SurvivorFoundation.

UK Doc Gifts School In Memory Of Twins Killed In Jnaneshwari Tragedy

Music gift to ease the painSumati Yengkhom TNN

Narinder Kapur and his wife Ritu visited theJewish Girls’ School on Tuesday

TOI

Kolkata: Shantilal Jain tookover the chairmanship of theCalcutta Tramways Companyin 2011. Apart from heading aprestigious post of the chair-man of a 113-year-old heritageinstitution, he had also inherit-ed, along with the role a wholegamut of problems that gavehim sleepless nights.

The Metro was at large togive it competition and so werethe AC CTC buses as a fastertransportation option for a fas-ter lifestyle that the city was getting used to.

Jain had to have a workablesolution for all these problemsand he first looked at ways togenerate more revenue to keepthe trams going.

“It is still a very viable op-tion. We still are connected insome of the main tracks likeShyambazar, the Maidan, Col-lege Street and Esplanade andalso Park Circus. But the How-rah connectivity is lost.”

Jain rules out privatization.He thinks the railways and evenCTC has a good infrastructure, avery efficient workshop at Non-apukur where trams are still be-ing rolled out. “One cannot workaway from the people. The cus-tomer comes first and we eventried to rent out our special

trams like Banani and Bonolotafor birthday bashes, uniquemarriages etc and our workerstoo realized the importance ofwhat we had and worked to pre-serve its glory,” he adds.

This summer might see ACtrams on city streets. Talks areon with the tourism departmentand the advertisers. The idea ofacafeteria is also being planned.

The Urban DevelopmentMinistry of the government ofIndia has conducted a survey, hesays, and presented a report onthe Renovation of CalcuttaTrams — The Light Rail TransitSystem and is willing to financeany new projects for this heri-tage institution. The state is also

busy beautifying the banks ofthe Ganga and once again wemight be able to hitch a ride toOutram Ghat or Babughat.These projects are all in thepipeline, says Jain. There is pos-sibility of tram routes linkingRajarhat, Bantala, he adds.

Personnel officer Anirudd-ha Bhattacharya, in charge ofthe Nonapukur tram workshopis extremely upbeat about the fu-ture. “With the oil crisis a reality,we have a readymade alterna-tive for the transport system,”he adds. The trams are still ex-tremely well-loved in the citywhere buses carry you at break-neck speed and lives are lost atthe drop of a hat.

Tramways hopeful ofbetter days ahead

Indira Kanjilal TNN

➤ First electric tram in Asia ran in Kolkata from Esplanade to Kidderpore...March 27, 1902 & June 14 from Esplanade to Kalighat

➤ Calcutta & Howrah joined by tram tracks on Howrah Bridge...February, 1943

113 GLORIOUS YEARS ...

➤ Single bogie AC and non-AC trams, cafeteria, tie-up with tourism dept for heritage trips, renting them out for birthdays, special occasions, special trams through Puja nights

NEW PROJECTS ON TRACK...

Pic: Subhojyoti Kanjilal

Kolkata: If things go according toplans, work on the 2X660 MW thermalpower plant in Purulia’s Adra is likelyto start soon. The Rs 7,700 crore projectwill be a joint venture between NTPCand Bharatiya Rail Bijlee CompanyLtd (BRBCL).

Sources said that necessary clear-ances have been received and the WestBengal Wasteland Development Cor-poration Ltd will start clearing theland in Manpura for the plant shortly.The land belongs to the Indian Rail-ways and was leased out to the state for-est department with a clause that itwould be taken back when required.

The MoU for this power plant wassigned on October 31, 2010, when Ma-mata Banerjee was the railway minis-ter. The Indian Railways consumeabout 17 billion units of electricity ev-

ery year, of which 14.5 billion units areused for traction purposes. From thepresent level of 3,500 MW of peak re-quirement, it is estimated that the de-mand for electricity over the next 10years will be nearly 6,000 MW.

The Adra power plant is to be set up using ‘super critical technology’.The equity contribution of the rail-ways and NTPC will be 26:74 and thepower generated will be wheeledthrough the national and state trans-mission networks to railway load cen-tres in the eastern, northern and western regions.

“The power plant will requireabout 7.42 million tonnes of coal per annum. Based upon recommenda-tions of the Central Electricity Au-thority, the Ministry of Power has recommended coal allotment to theMinistry of Coal. NTPC and BRBCLhave also applied to the Ministry of

Coal for allocation of coal block on January 29, 2013. Damodar Valley Corporation has confirmed that it will supply the water required,” asource revealed.

The Environment Impact Assess-ment (EIA) and public hearing havebeen completed as per the Term of Ref-erence approval received from theMinistry of Environment and Forests.“A meeting has also been held with theadditional chief secretary (forests) toresolve the issue of payment in con-nection with cutting of trees on therailway land that will be required forthe project. Felling of trees will startshortly,” the source added.

A consortium was engaged toprepare the feasibility report, detailedproject report and site studies report,based on which the applications forclearances were made. The West Bengal Pollution Control Board has already granted clearance to the pro-ject. The Extended Board of Railwayshas also approved it. All thesereports have been forwarded to NTPCby the railways.

Work on Adra power plant may start soonJayanta Gupta TNN

The power plant will re-quire about 7.42 milliontonnes of coal per an-num.NTPC and BRBCL

have also applied to theMinistry of Coal for alloca-tion of coal block on Janu-ary 29, 2013. Damodar Val-ley Corporation hasconfirmed that it will supplythe water required

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