KOLKATA, 8 FEB: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation will allow parking for a maximum 180 cars on Park Street and the stretch on Jawaharlal Nehru Road opposite Oberoi Grand, the member, mayor-in-council in-charge of drainage, Rajib Deb, said today. The decision has been taken for faster movement of traffic along Park Street and opposite Oberoi Grand.

The KMC has demarcated the area on both thoroughfares where parking ~ 100 vehicles opposite Oberoi Grand and 80 cars on Park Street ~ will be allowed and boards have been put up to this effect.

KOLKATA, 7 FEB: Although Tata Motors Limited (TML) and the vendors are similarly placed, the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act discriminates between the two, counsel of the vendors at TML's Singur site, Mr SK Kapur, submitted before the Division Bench of Mr Justice Pinaki Ghosh and Mr Justice Mrinalkanti Choudhury of Calcutta High Court today.

State-owned NTPC Ltd’s capacity addition target of 66,000 mega watt for the Twelfth Plan period could take a knocking as legal hurdles hold up the placement of equipment orders for key projects slated to come up over the next five years. The company has been unable to go ahead with the placement of equipment orders for four super-critical projects in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar as its bulk tender floated in 2009 for the supply of 11 boilers and 11 turbines of 660 MW each has been stuck in court.

In a decision that is likely to benefit rice farmers of West Bengal, an Empowered Group of Ministers headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday is learnt to have decided to allow foodgrain exports to Bangladesh through specified points across border. The decision is likely to benefit exporters by reducing transportation costs and also farmers from West Bengal, Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh from where private traders may source the foodgrain for export.

KOLKATA, 6 FEB: Kolkata Municipal Corporation will set up a separate cell comprising borough executive officers to oversee development work that are carried out in the slums, member, mayor-in-council (health and bustee), Mr Atin Ghosh, said today. The new cell will prepare a list of the amount spent on slums. Once the KMC has the actual figure of the money spent, it will be easier to prepare schemes, Mr Ghosh added.

KOLKATA, 6 FEB: Despite repeated attempts the Kolkata Environmental Improvement Project (KEIP) has failed to finish the dredging work of Tollygunge-Pachannagram canal (T-P canal) due to illegal settlements. The dredging is necessary to save a vast areas from water-logging during the coming monsoon.

Bhushan Steel has put its proposed Rs 20,000-crore steel plant project in West Bengal on hold, stonewalled by the Mamata Banerjee government's policy of not acquiring land for the industry, a senior company official said. “Land acquisition in the state is an uphill task for industries, we cannot do it alone. It is difficult for us to acquire such a vast area on our own,” the company director (finance) Mr Nittin Johari said.

MALDA/BANKURA, 3 FEB: Nine babies at Malda Medical College and Hospital, and 10 babies at Bankura Sammiloni Medical College and Hospital have died in the last 48 hours. In Malda, health officials said the deaths were caused by low birth weights and malnutrition, the same causes they gave for previous deaths. Minister of state for health Chandrima Bhattacharya plans to visit Malda Monday in connection with the recent child deaths, and also attend a government function.

KOLKATA, 3 FEB: The state government will give compensation to the tea garden workers, whose property and buildings have been damaged by elephants. State forest minister Hiten Burman said this after a meeting with several tea gardens' associations today. The state government and tea garden owners will jointly pay the compensation to the labourers.