Kolkata braces for festive season
With a dip in mercury levels, Kolkata’s residents are gearing up for Christmas and New Year festivities. Park Street, the epicenter of the “Boro Din” (as Christmas is known in Bengal) has been decked up as even the state government has jumped into the celebrations, like it did in the Bijoya Dashami celebrations. Residents are lining up for music and cultural festivals mushrooming around the state. Although it’s in celebration mode, the government has also stepped up vigil and have placed human and mechanical measures to minimise incidents of drunk driving.
Rosogolla fest to mark its 150 years
A three-day rosogolla festival will be hosted to mark the 150 years of the invention of Bengal’s rosogolla by its inventor Nobin Chandra Das. The festival comes a year after the state received the Geographical Indication tag for “Banglar rosogolla” or Bengal’s variant of the sweetmeat. Sweetmeat traders from across the state will showcase their products in the “Baghbazar O Rosogolla Utsab” held with the state government’s support. Das had invented the Bengal variant of the sweetmeat at his sweet shop in the northern part of the city in 1868 with fragmented crumbs of cottage cheese and sugar syrup. The origins of the sweetmeat led to a dispute between Odisha and Bengal last year with both states claiming the Geographical Indication tag for it.
Kolkata air quality becomes ‘severe’
As the city braces for the festive season, the AQI of north Kolkata’s Rabindra Bharati University touched the “severe” level of 411 PM 2.5 whereas that of Victoria Memorial read “very poor” with an AQI of 355. The air quality of the city has seen a sharp dip this year even beating Delhi during the Durga Puja to Kali Puja festive season. Environmentalists say the state government is doing too little to mitigate the problem. Though the administration had banned firecrackers during Diwali, revellers had ignored the ban and no steps are being taken to curb vehicular pollution.
Sixth E-W metro train reaches city
The sixth of the 14 metro rakes requisitioned from Bengaluru-based PSU Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) reached the city for operations in the Salt Lake to Howrah Maidan East West phase of Kolkata Metro. A 106-wheeled trailer brought the rake from Bengaluru and delivered it to the Salt Lake depot of the Kolkata Metro Rail. The rake will be assembled and tested on the completed section of the phase between Salt Lake Karunamoyee and Sector V. The previous rakes were delivered over the past one year. The BEML-made stainless steel rake can carry upto 2000 passengers as opposed to 3,200 carried in north-south phase, the oldest functional metro route phase of the country.
Aishik Chanda
Our correspondent in West Bengal
chanda.aishik@gmail.com