The Calcutta City Network

Mumbai, July 11: Terror coursed through India from its northern tip at noon to its financial heart at sundown, as synchronised grenade attacks in Srinagar gave way to multiple blasts on packed commuter trains in Mumbai, leaving over 147 dead.

Seven blasts ripped through first class compartments of suburban trains during the evening rush hours, wounding over 439 people at Matunga Road, Bandra, Mahim and Khar at one end and Jogeshwari, Borivli and Mira Road on the other.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, the worst in the city in over a decade. The first bomb went off at Khar at 6.25 pm and the last between Mira Road and Bhayander at 7.09 pm.

The multiple explosions were a bloody throwback to the blasts that maimed the city and killed 257 in March 1993, with the difference that commuters on Mumbai’s lifeline were targeted this time and not symbols of financial might like the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Commuters fled stations in panic after the explosions and mobile phone lines were jammed. Several bodies lay scattered on tracks. Television pictures showed twisted rail carriages and people in bloodstained clothes carrying the dead and wounded on stretchers.

“The blasts happened when the trains were most crowded,” D.K. Shankaran, state chief secretary, said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appealed to the people to remain calm and expressed the government’s resolve to “fight and defeat the evil designs of terrorists”. Sonia Gandhi reached the city tonight.

“The government will take all possible measures to maintain law and order and defeat the forces of terrorism,” Singh said after an emergency meeting in Delhi.

The impact of some of the blasts, suspected to have been triggered by RDX, was so huge that the walls and roofs of train bogies were ripped off. At Matunga Road, a part of the platform shed was blown off.

“We ran for our life as no one knew what was happening around us. Some people were trampled in the rush,” a survivor at Khar station said.

City police chief A.N. Roy said it was difficult to confirm the explosive used. “It is a bomb blast. We are not sure if it is RDX or not.”


The wreckage of a train at Matunga station.
The police, however, suspect the hand of the Lashkar-e-Toiba. Two Lashkar modules were busted in Aurangabad recently and 43 kg of RDX seized. Intelligence had then indicated the presence of sleeper modules in Mumbai.

Immediately after the blasts, all suburban and long-distance trains on the western railway line were suspended. The police cordoned off major road intersections, railway stations and exit points. Late tonight, the Andheri-Bandra line was reopened.

There were frenzied scenes at stations with people scrambling to get alternative modes of transport home. At Churchgate, frantic commuters tried to force-hop onto vans or other four-wheelers to get home.

Dazed survivors with wounds on their heads, legs and hands waited at railway stations, with little sign of any emergency medical aid.

“We heard a loud blast in one of the train compartments. When we rushed there and looked, we saw people with severed limbs and grievous injuries,” a witness said, standing in a blood-spattered coach. “There were no police or railway people to help.”

For four hours after the blasts, cellular and landline networks collapsed, hampering communication. Roads were jammed with traffic as hundreds of stranded train passengers scouted for alternative transport.

By late tonight, most of the wounded had been ferried to private and municipal hospitals, including V.N. Desai, Sion, Cooper and Bhabha. “At 10 pm, the seven municipal hospitals had 140 people confirmed dead and 340 injured. Additional doctors have reached hospitals. Blood donors are queueing up,” municipal commissioner Johny Joseph said.

Security has been beefed up at key installations, including the BSE, RBI and Bombay High.

Calcutta, of all places, is playing host to the “first ever acquisition or merger” in the Indian multiplex space. INOX Leisure Limited has just entered into “an all-share-swap deal” with Calcutta Cinema Private Limited (CCPL) for acquiring CCPL and merging its operations. In simpler terms, within six months, when all the paperwork is taken care of, all the 89 Cinemas properties — both existing and proposed— will be branded INOX multiplexes.

In terms of numbers, the proposed merger will take INOX’s plex count to 13 in Bengal and eight in Calcutta once all the under-construction properties are fully ready. In the city, INOX already has two operational plexes — at Forum and City Centre — and 89

Cinemas has one in Swabhumi. Add to these two five-screen INOX properties coming up in Diamond City and Jessore Road and three four-screen 89 Cinemas holdings being readied in Hazra, Howrah and Rajarhat.

“Every industry goes through a growth phase first and then enters into consolidation,” Deepak Asher, director of INOX Leisure Limited, tells Metro. “This acquisition can be called the first transaction of the consolidation phase for INOX. By taking over already existing properties, we are going for a faster trajectory than building new properties from scratch.”

It’s also a win-win situation for 89 Cinemas, which has its fair share of loyalists but has been unable to match the INOX sway over the city. “It’s a merger of the strengths of either side,” claims Debashis Ghosal, CEO and MD of 89 Cinemas. “Our positioning in eastern India is giving INOX the strength to consolidate in the region while their national presence is adding value to our shareholders and stakeholders. Even our employees are getting absorbed under the same conditions in a bigger company format.”

But why have 89 Cinemas (Swabhumi) and INOX (City Centre) in the same catchment area? “With both the properties now coming under the same management, we are confident of providing a synergy between the two,” says Asher. “Also, the programming can be done differently in the two properties so as not to clash with each other. Anyway, you have to look at this acquisition from a macro perspective, rather than only at the operational Swabhumi multiplex.”

With INOX taking over the 89 Cinemas properties, Fame (Hiland Park) remains the only non-INOX operational multiplex in the city. “I am sure other players are going to venture into Calcutta and eastern India soon, but yes, by making an early move we do have a distinctive advantage. INOX is already the most profitable multiplex chain in the country and we want to continue our run,” adds Asher.

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, is tying up with a Calcutta campus and bringing its expertise in management studies to the table.
NSHM Academy, a city institute, is investing Rs 55 crore to set up a business and management school and a media and communications school in Calcutta.
The institute will tie up with IIT Delhi’s department of management studies to draw up the postgraduate curriculum for the new school.
IIT Delhi will collaborate with NSHM in more ways. It will determine faculty positions for the management school.
The IIT will also ensure quality control by monitoring the teaching standards.
“Nowhere else in the country has an IIT entered into such a tie-up. This is also for the first time that IIT Delhi is making a foray into the eastern zone of the country,” said Cecil Antony, chairman of NSHM Academy.
The academy is affiliated to the West Bengal University of Technology for its undergraduate courses.
“We have spoken to Harish Chaudhury, professor of the department of management studies, IIT Delhi. He is helping us prepare the methodology and the format of the courses on the lines of IIT Delhi,” Antony said.
Chaudhury, speaking from Delhi, said: “The teaching format at most B-schools is not up to the mark. We also have plans to conduct special classes in the Calcutta institute by teachers of IIT Delhi.”
The undergraduate programmes start from August this year and the post-graduate schedule from next year.
The academy has obtained a 2.2-acre plot in Tollygunge, adjacent to South City Garden on BL Saha Road. The organisation can build on an area of 160,000 sq ft, and it has already built on 50,000 sq ft. The construction will be ready by 2008.
The campus will house the management and media schools, and accommodate over 300 students.

“The entire work of South City (Project), should be closed.”
“Tower III and Tower IV should be demolished.”

These are the first two recommendations of the committee set up by the West Bengal Pollution Control Board in April to “examine all the issues in respect of South City Projects”.

“I am not aware of the panel’s report and hence, cannot make any comment. Besides, the matter is sub judice,” declared South City CEO Sanjay Choudhury.

The largest residential-cum-commercial project of the city on Prince Anwar Shah Road has been found guilty of flouting environmental norms, as reported in a newspaper on March 1.

The four-member panel, in the report submitted last week , orders a halt on all work at the estate and restoration of Bikramgarh Jheel, bordering the site, for the following reasons:

• “…construction work of Tower III and Tower IV have encroached waterbody and also developed by filling up of the waterbody”

• “South City has failed to show any waterbody area of 1.31 acre for which it obtained permission from the state board for fill up”

• “South City failed to show any area where 1.41 acre of land will be developed as waterbody as per their commitment against the filling up of the waterbody of 1.31 acre”.

South City has been directed to first demolish Tower III (construction of ground floor complete, according to the project’s website as on April 21) and Tower IV (foundation complete, again according to the website), and then “prepare full Environment Impact Assessment through government institution or from any reputed university…”.

The Rs 500-crore-plus project, spread over 31 acres, is to have around 1,600 flats in four residential towers, along with a mall with a multiplex, a school, a club and more.

The committee, headed by Prof P.N. Roy, also chairman of the state-level Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) committee, has recommended “proper steps against the persons who issued or accorded permission (to South City) for filling up of the waterbody and issued ‘consent to establish’ without application of mind and violating the law of the land”.

In its findings, the committee labels “the permission accorded for filling up of the waterbody highly irregular” and the “entire modus operandi of the state board questionable and bad in law”.

The committee holds the then chief engineer Biman Basu and present chief engineer Ranjit Kumar Ghosh responsible for the “highly irregular” permission. It also states that “S.K. Sarkar, the then member secretary… violated the law of the land and issued permission for filling up of the waterbody as per the advice of (the then) principal secretary, department of environment, Asim Burman”.

Pollution board chairman Sudip Banerjee said: “We have received the report and are examining it.”

In a related development, the Union forest and environment ministry has asked for an action taken report from the state pollution control board (PCB) on the South City matter, enclosing the March 1 newspaper article as “self-explanatory”.

After motorcycles and bullet-proof vehicles, Calcutta Police has set its sights on a helicopter.
The proposal for the city police to take to the skies has been cleared by the state government. If a chopper does join its ranks, Calcutta Police will be the first police force in the country to have a helicopter.
“We have a list of things for the next two years and a helicopter figures on it. It will cost around Rs 10-15 crore. Talks are already on,” joint commissioner of police (administration) Kuldiep Singh told Metro.
Police will use the helicopter to handle major disasters or terrorist strikes. “During floods or other natural calamities we will be able to conduct an aerial survey and trace affected areas. We will also be able to monitor relief and rescue operations,” explained Singh.
In charge of modernising Calcutta Police, he visited London last month to train with Scotland Yard and took a fancy to their use of a helicopter. “They zero in on criminals fleeing in vehicles on a helicopter. After my return I proposed it at a meeting of senior officers and everyone agreed.”
The chopper, Singh said, would be equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and serve as an airborne police control room. “In case of a terrorist attack we can keep an eye on an area and movements there. We can even keep tabs on political meetings and pass on messages to officers on the roads.” Snipers and rapid fire pistols will also be added to the Calcutta Police arsenal, mainly as a measure against terrorism.
As part of the megacity scheme, the Centre has been releasing funds to Calcutta Police over the past two years. Every year, the state also contributes 25 per cent of the total grant sanctioned by the Centre. Till May this year, Calcutta Police has received Rs 18 crore from the Centre. The money was spent on bullet-proof vehicles, jackets and helmets, and sophisticated arms.
“We will get Rs 22 crore from the Centre. We have to use it within a certain period or return it,” explained Singh.

The Chief Minister Of Calcutta, is being tormented by the citizens of Calcutta.
The Telegraph gave the citizens a chance to speak out by SMSing.
This is what they had to say:

CM sir, how would you feel if we paint the wall of your house with graffiti?
Saurav Agarwal(student), BK Pal Avenue

A retrograde and selfish step from a so-called progressive CM with an eye on his own political support base, ignoring the welfare of the people who voted him to power.

Rina Das (language teacher) Alipore

A clean city has clean walls. Defacement of walls
will make our Calcutta look so dirty.

Sanjay Agarwal (CA) Bhowanipore

It's unbelieveable that an educated person like the chief minister can take such a drastic step that will act against the interests of the citizens of Bengal. We have just spent a huge amount in getting our complex painted. We cannot allow anybody to spoil it.

Rahul Mukherjee (hospitality consultant), Chetla

My wall is my property. It enhances the beauty of a little residence. I cannot allow anybody to deface it.

Dr S.K. Mukherjee, Mankitala

Its shameful that such an issue should ever be debeated. I feel ashamed of living in a city led by such politicians.

Mimli Kulshreshtha (CA) Gurusaday Road.

The forgien investors may not like the dirty walls of the city.

Pialy Roy (school teacher) Agarpara

A very unwise desicion. Not expected from a person like Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Sudeshna Paul (IT sector) Rashbehari Avenue

It would give out such a wrong messege to the people visiting Calcutta. They might think that political parties call the shots and people have no say over their persoal properties.

Arpana Sen (school teacher) Rashbehari Avenue

Political graffiti should not be allowed on the streets of Calcutta at any cost.

Shriya Palchoudhuri (student) Salt Lake

The chief minister better have a good defence , because
the citizen look ready to charge against his desicion.

Sahil Ahmad Zaroo, the fourth guest at Rahul Mahajan’s party on Thursday night, has denied he had brought the drugs that were believed to be behind Rahul’s illness and the death of his father Pramod’s secretary Bibek Moitra.
The 21-year-old son of a wealthy Srinagar carpet merchant, arrested in Srinagar today, said the “white powder” was already with Rahul when he reached the house.

“When I entered Rahul’s room there was some white powder on the
table. I also tasted a little of it and immediately fell
unconscious,”

he told a newspaper reporter at the office of a TV channel from where he was taken into custody.

“Trish (Trishay) took me out (of the place). I came to Srinagar on Friday on a
Jet Airways flight in keeping with my schedule. I wasn’t the supplier of the
drugs that caused the tragedy.”
The three other boys with him — Trishay,
Karan and Rahul — told police that it was Sahil who bought the “white
powder”
from a dealer in Vasant Vihar for Rs 15,000 after Bibek asked him to
get some
cocaine.

Bibek, they said, had given Sahil the money, and Karan had accompanied him when he went out to buy the stuff.
But Sahil, who sat his graduation exams from Mumbai’s St Xavier’s College this year, said this version was “wrong and false” and that he was a victim of an “accident”.
“I was present at the wrong place at the wrong time. I did not directly know Rahul Mahajan, but I knew his secretary Bibek,” he said sitting beside his lawyer Aslam Goni.
“There was no conspiracy…. I was also in a bad condition and was puking all day and even didn’t know who was driving me where.
“You just go to meet someone and an accident happens. I will fully cooperate with the investigation as I have nothing to hide.”
Sahil seemed anxious after he was told that the post-mortem on Moitra had found traces of poison but no narcotics.
“What are they (the doctors) trying to say? That I am the one who has poisoned him?” he said.
From the TV channel’s office, the young man was taken to the office of the district police chief. He would be handed over tomorrow to a Delhi police team, which arrived in Srinagar today.
Sahil’s family lives in the upscale Nageen locality of Srinagar. His father Gulam Hassan Zaroo has a carpet shop in Mumbai’s Nariman Point.
The youth’s college mates in Mumbai said he was “confident and debonair”, always loaded with cash and generous to friends.
The manager of a posh pub in Juhu remembered him as a friendly young man who drank a lot.
“He was a friendly guy,” agreed a classmate. “But he used to hang around more with aspiring models and actors. He was very keen to join films.”
Sahil used to spend a lot of time in the posh Bandra suburb, home to many Bollywood people, the classmate said. He was also a regular at one of the hottest nightclubs of south Mumbai, Velocity. Bibek was a partner in the club.
A staff member of Velocity was said to be very close to Bibek. Police are looking into Bibek’s life outside the political sphere and his social contacts.
“We don’t know about Bibek, but yes, Sahil would often mention Velocity. He loved being seen in places that had a glam quotient,” the classmate said.
The college authorities refused to speak to journalists.

The marrige of the millennium is comming up. All speculations can be put to rest now. Abhishek "is" getting married to Aishwarya, after all. All the horoscopic differences and family resistance could not deter Chhota B from conquering the world - his world now - miss Aishwarya Rai. The Abhi-Ash is scheduled for early 2007. In fact Abhi had given her the "ring" long before the Vivek-Ash split became apparent. They were committed and didn't waver in the face of all the rumours that flew around them. Seems Abhi was determined to clear all the mumbo-jumbo about how Ash's presence would bring more bad luck to him a la Vivek and Salmaan. Our Chuppa Rustam silently kept his ladylove by his side, moved steadily ahead towards success. Friends say that Abhi is so besotted by Ash that he just can't do without her now. Ditto with Ash. Actually her accident in Chennai during the shoot of Mani Ratnam's film Guru helped them make up for the lost time they were away from each other. The wait will be over soon!