Kolkata diary

Kolkata’s history now only a click away
Kolkata Municipal Corporation has launched a website — www.kmcarchive.in — in detailing the history and authentic information about the City of Joy. The website will have all relevant trivia and information about the mayors of the city, how it was founded, street list (1889-2014), heritage buildings, newspapers, major incidents, places of interests and photographs of key persons. KMC has set sights on having the information available in over one lakh subjects on the website. The website will be interactive as well and anyone seeking any specific information can send an email and the additional information will be mailed back.

Cyclists pedal to protest against pollution
Over 250 bicyclists of Kolkata Cycle Samaj pedaled between Bhowanipore in central Kolkata to Shyambazaar in north Kolkata and back urging people to reduce vehicular pollution. The movement was launched after the Air Quality Index of the city became one of the most hazardous in the country. The upturn in pollution levels has been blamed on the mushrooming of app-based cab services in the city.

3 booked for creating fake profile of French envoy
Three persons were booked for allegedly creating a fake profile of French Consulate General, forging several documents and electronic records and uploading misleading information to dupe people. Anjita Roychaudhury, a diplomatic liase with the Consulate General of France in Kolkata, filed the complaint against the three persons accusing them of hatching the conspiracy  last year. The accused were slapped with several sections of IT Act, 2000 and IPC.

Final tunnel boring for East-West Metro begins
The last leg of tunnel boring between Esplanade and Sealdah railway stations on the East West Metro phase of the Kolkata Metro began. The tunnel boring machine, named Chandi, was pressed into service to build the 2.45 km long tunnel and burrow-and-build machine Urvi is slated to begin construction of the tunnel from February 15 onwards. The project is expected to be completed within 15 months and the deadline has been set as March 2020. The two machines are carefully digging the tunnel 28 meters below the surface in an old part of the city where 675 buildings will come under the influence of the machine’s boring. Several of these buildings are more than 100 years old.

Aishik Chanda

Our correspondent in West Bengal

chanda.aishik@gmail.com