Siliguri, March 14: The first “green” train in the country will be introduced in north Bengal, the railway minister said today while announcing five new express trains for the region. “A green train would run through the pristine forests of north Bengal,” minister Dinesh Trivedi said in his railway budget speech but did not provide any details on the route or frequency.

NEW DELHI, March 14 – It’s official. The ambitious national railway projects in North-east are likely to suffer further delays with Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi, ruing a slash in budgetary support, confirmed that the national projects may get delayed for want of adequate funding. Presenting his maiden Budget on Wednesday, the Rail Minister lamented that its projected requirement of Rs 45,000 crore has been slashed to Rs 24,000 crore.

Authorities of the Buxa Tiger Reserve are formulating plans for a major overhaul of the tourist facilities at the reserve.

“We are preparing our eco-tourism plans in accordance with the guidelines given by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. Tourist lodges will be set up at seven spots in the buffer zone of the reserve,” Buxa Tiger Reserve Field Director R. P. Saini told The Hindu over telephone.

Jalpaiguri, Jan. 16: The Centre has released nearly Rs 13 crore for the construction of spurs on the Teesta a few kilometres from here, where the river changed its course last monsoon and threatened to flood Jalpaiguri town. River expert Kalyan Rudra has termed the measure temporary and suggested that dredging could be an option. Subdivisional engineer of the irrigation department Keshab Roy said the Teesta had broken its bank at Gourikone last year and veered to the right, 5km off course towards Rangdhamalirhat, a densely populated area.

Gajoldoba (Jalpaiguri), Jan. 8: Bickering gave way to bonhomie today when water was released for the first time from the Teesta Barrage to farmlands along the left bank. Irrigation minister Manas Bhunia was showered with praise by his cabinet colleague, Trinamul Congress’s Gautam Deb, and the CPM MP from Jalpaiguri, Mahendra Roy. They lauded the senior Congress leader for channelling water into the Teesta’s left bank within eight months of taking charge of the irrigation department.

Farmers who had given land for a factory of the West Bengal Pharmaceutical and Phytochemical Development Corporation nearly two decades ago demanded that the utilised plot be given to them for growing crops. Today, around 200 people gathered under the banner of the Congress’ farmers’ wing and demanded that a manufacturing unit be set up in the entire area within a month or the land returned to them.

Jalpaiguri, Jan. 3: Residents of Panga have stopped the entry of garbage trucks to a dump yard since yesterday after an agreement that allowed the civic body to use the place expired on December 31. The residents also said while the municipality was concerned about cleaning up the Karala, where thousands of fish had floated up dead on November 28, the other river of the town, Panga, was being neglected.

Jalpaiguri, Jan. 1: The irrigation department is reviving the Karala Action Plan that was drawn up by North Bengal University in 2000 with revised estimates to improve the flow and control the pollution of the river. From yesterday, the irrigation department has been releasing water from an aqueduct of the Teesta Barrage Project into the Karala in a bid to reduce the pollution load. However, the discharge from the barrage could not help raise the water level in the Karala by even a foot.

Jalpaiguri, Dec. 27: The Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute has confirmed that presence of abnormally high rate of endosulfan in the Karala had killed thousands of fish belonging to 33 species on November 28. The finding was mentioned in a 26-page report sent by the Calcutta-based institute to the assistant director of fisheries here. “The abnormal content of pesticides recorded in fish samples can be considered a definitive cause for such large scale fish mortality in Karala river,” reads the report.