Latest news with #Amphan
Time of India
5 days ago
- General
- Time of India
New Market clock tower restoration starts, exterior repair to begin after rain spell ends
1 2 Kolkata: Work on the repair and restoration of the New Market clock tower has finally begun. Masons have started work inside the tower on Friday, chipping off the damp and portions of the plaster in which cracks appeared. Once the current spell of rain ends, scaffolding will be installed to enable exterior repair work. "Work on restoring the iconic New Market clock tower has started in earnest. Since it has been raining over the past few days, we have started working inside the tower. The scaffolding materials are in place. As soon as there is a dry spell, the scaffolding will be installed around the tower and work will begin on its exterior as well," said restoration architect Anjan Mitra, who is executing the prestigious project that is scheduled to be completed before Poila Baisakh next year. The tower with the four-faced clock and its Westminster chimes that survived monsoons and storms for nearly a century was left severely battered by cyclonic storm Amphan in May 2020. Lack of maintenance thereafter caused further damage. Water seeped in, causing cracks in the structure. You Can Also Check: Kolkata AQI | Weather in Kolkata | Bank Holidays in Kolkata | Public Holidays in Kolkata The timber floors and decorative elements, including cast iron railings, got corroded. The wooden slats in the spire have fallen apart, and the Westminster chimes and hourly dongs have stopped. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like They Were So Beautiful Before; Now Look At Them; Number 10 Will Shock You Reportingly Undo Portions of the intricate glasses that made up the 7-ft diameter dials went missing, and wild vegetation has taken root. "We will have to strengthen the structural stability of the tower, stop seepage of water, repair the flooring and the interior, improve light and ventilation, replace damaged artwork, and overhaul the clock and its chiming mechanism. The entire work will take around six months," said Mitra, who has restored the Metropolitan Building, Howrah Town Hall, and Sister Nivedita's house. The clock tower is the most defining architectural feature in the 151-year-old New Market. While Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), which owns the market, announced plans two years ago to carry out a thorough repair and revamp of the market to mark its 150th anniversary, it has been unable to set the ball rolling despite funds being approved by the state govt. A private firm, Techno Electric, has now stepped in to fund the clock tower's restoration. "I came to the city 50 years ago as a bank employee, ventured into business, and established myself. It feels good to be able to do something for the city,"company MD, P P Gupta said. Once the repair work of the top section of the tower is complete, clock mechanism experts Swapan and Satyajit Dutta, the father-son duo that has repaired and revived multiple public clock mechanisms in the city in recent years, will undertake the restoration of the Gillett & Johnston clock of the UK. "The overhaul will take around two months," said Satyajit.
Mint
08-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
India's disaster risk financing needs to evolve as new options emerge
Shishir Agarwal Successive Finance Commissions (FCs) have aided the cause, no doubt, but the country's vulnerabilities have also grown. Perhaps the 16th FC will look at some new models that could be adopted to ensure India doesn't scramble for funds if disaster strikes. In just the past five years, India has been battered by cyclones, floods, landslides and erratic monsoons. Gift this article It often begins with a tremor underfoot. Or the rising howl of wind over the coastline. Or the dull, ceaseless drum of rain on rooftops that quickly evokes panic once streets begin to fill. Disasters don't arrive with subtlety. They crash into lives, homes, cities and the economy with devastating regularity. In just the past five years, India has been battered by cyclones like Amphan and Tauktae, floods in Bengaluru, Assam and Chennai, landslides in Wayanad and erratic monsoons. The price tag? Assessed to be upwards of a staggering ₹ 50,000 crore annually in economic losses. It often begins with a tremor underfoot. Or the rising howl of wind over the coastline. Or the dull, ceaseless drum of rain on rooftops that quickly evokes panic once streets begin to fill. Disasters don't arrive with subtlety. They crash into lives, homes, cities and the economy with devastating regularity. In just the past five years, India has been battered by cyclones like Amphan and Tauktae, floods in Bengaluru, Assam and Chennai, landslides in Wayanad and erratic monsoons. The price tag? Assessed to be upwards of a staggering ₹ 50,000 crore annually in economic losses. And yet, when the waters recede and the headlines fade, a quiet cost must be borne: ex-post funding from public coffers and debt to patch things up. Past Finance Commissions addressed these by providing nuanced funding for pre-disaster activities aimed at reducing the risk and intensity of future disasters. The model of 'spend after loss' was not only inefficient but unsustainable for our developmental aspirations. While enormous strides have been made in risk assessment, early warning, mitigation and preparedness to reduce fatalities and infrastructure damage, a lot more remains to be done. Also Read: India's growth and urban planning: On different planets Let's rewind to the early days of India's disaster risk financing history. In the 1950s, the Second Finance Commission (FC) recommended ₹ 6 crore annually under 'Margin Money' to help states cope with natural calamities. It was largely a symbolic gesture, but the regularity and severity of disasters pushed successive FCs to raise allocations substantially. The 8th FC scaled it up to ₹ 240 crore annually. The 9th FC, recognizing a need for state-level autonomy, introduced the Calamity Relief Fund. This was a turning point. The new millennium brought new urgency. The Gujarat earthquake and 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami served as brutal wake-up calls. The 11th and 12th FCs upped allocations considerably, but the approach largely remained reactive—with funding in response to a calamity, rather than anticipating or preventing it and mitigating its impact. The Disaster Management Act of 2005 finally gave India a legal institutional framework with clear terms of reference to comprehensively tackle disasters. This legal scaffold paved the way for the 13th FC to institutionalize the National and State Disaster Response Funds (NDRF and SDRF). For the first time, the idea of structured, rule-based disaster financing took hold. And yet, one part stayed conspicuously underfunded: preparedness and mitigation—the silent work of preparing before the storm. The 15th FC, spanning 2020-21 to 2025-26, changed that. It not only recognized the scale of risks we face, but also proposed a financial architecture to match it. With ₹ 1.60 trillion allocated for states and ₹ 68,000 crore for the Centre—including ₹ 45,000 crore earmarked just for mitigation—this implied a shift to 'Build now or pay later.' Equally important was the adoption of a Disaster Risk Index (DRI), a data-driven formula to guide allocations based not on past expenditures but actual vulnerabilities. It marked the transition from a welfare mindset to a resilience mindset. For the first time, we were preparing for disasters. However, this evolving framework has its limits. Rapid urbanization has turned cities into flood traps. A single rainstorm can paralyse a metropolis. Climate change has escalated the severity of storms, making once-rare events routine. Livelihoods in villages and small towns can be destroyed by disasters if they don't get financial support. The cost of recovery is rising—and with it, a troubling trend. In the absence of pre-arranged risk financing, governments tended to lean on multilateral development banks (MDBs) for loans to fund recovery efforts. While this is a valid emergency option, it is no substitute for national financial resilience. Borrowing to rebuild after every flood or earthquake only shifts the burden onto future generations. As we await recommendations of the 16th FC, some interesting new ideas have emerged. Risk-retention models are making way for risk sharing via pre-arranged financing tools like contingency buffers, catastrophe risk pools and parametric models that can release funds swiftly without delay. We also need to consider support for household-level resilience and encourage communities to adopt personal risk coverage, not just for crops and property but also lives and livelihoods. We must foster a culture of self-protection. We must also focus on urban resilience through dedicated funds for climate-adaptive infrastructure and the retrofitting of critical but vulnerable assets. And finally, we need a strategy that ensures disaster funds aren't merely 'available' but accessible, flexible and aligned with the risk landscape. It is imperative to transform India's disaster risk management, as guided by the Prime Minister's 2016 Ten-Point Agenda for disaster relief and rehabilitation. In a disaster-prone world, India must become a nation where resilience is built-in, not bolted on; a country that does not scramble for funds after a disaster strikes, but is financially prepared. True independence is not just about sovereignty over land, but also about sovereignty over disaster recovery. The author is senior consultant (DRF) at the National Disaster Management Authority. Topics You May Be Interested In
Scroll.in
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scroll.in
‘Why do we submit? / to fracturing?': A poetry anthology of South Asian women's traumas
White Roses by Lopamudra Basu Today, I click on Kolkata Gifts Online and order thirty white roses in a vase for you. Ma sends me the photo of the roses and tuberoses and the jasmine garland all adorning your face today. Two years ago, in that May of hell's heat and destruction there were no garlands. Flower sellers banished from the city like vermin thought to spread the plague, dying of thirst on the way, walking hundreds of miles, sometimes with no shoes Today, life goes on as usual in New York, New Delhi and Kolkata – do people even remember that there was no firewood or earth to bury the dead? No flights from Minneapolis or Chicago not even a phone call to hear you in the hospital. We have said often that we have to think of it as a natural disaster, an earthquake or a cyclone like Amphan that tore you away Except, it was not a forest fire and more a Chernobyl with many forewarnings. Two years later, so many names whispered by the wind, and so many lives like leaves blown away. So many souls still unmourned and some like the white roses in the vase pressed forever in memory's folds. Fractured by Feroza Jussawalla A purple pensiveness falls over me, as I contemplate fractured bodies and purple passions. Who will love me now, at sixty-six, with lumpectomied one and half breasts and a bulging inguinal hernia caused by moving boxes after the radical hysterectomy of cancers past. None will hold women broken and fragmented, afraid to touch cracked glass, like shards of crystal glassware, resulting from being, dropped in the deliberate abandonment of betrayals, wrought by those who should have loved us. Why do we submit? to fracturing? Grief is too painful to contemplate in purple pensiveness. Can we be Kintsugi'd? Using gold, to fill the cracks of my life, has become too burdensome— I will remain, 'feroza,', scarred with pyrite, copper turquoise, they call it in India, Nishapuri, like my Persian origins, Sonoran gold, in my new desert home, where sand pours through cracks like a sieve, unrepairable! Parrot (Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, ten years after the end of the war) by Vivimarie Vanderpoorten The woman who lost her son in the war shows me his framed photograph. But in his smile there is no hint of wrists firing a gun nor the shadow of hands hurling grenades in his clothes, no hint of a striped uniform. Like the parrot she now keeps caged and in whose wings she has clipped. there is no trace of the possibility of flight. But as the parrot hops around in his iron cage you can see the memory of freedom in his eyes a home land, branches and green fields in his now non-existent wings Evening of the 4th of July by Soniah Kamal She applies lipstick to her reflection in the dark of the computer monitor her face the bones of shadow play the color mute as she drags a red pencil she'd brought from the dollar store clearance bin to keep her lips in though she will fill them up like padded bosoms with a clear plumping serum that shines and winks no matter how dark the screen that conceals the peacock blue and green; the bruiser kiss She did not want she could not stop.
Deccan Herald
22-06-2025
- Climate
- Deccan Herald
Impact of climate change on insurance claims and risk assessment
Major incidents like Cyclone Amphan, floods in Assam and Kerala, and extended heatwaves across North India have already caused significant losses particularly in the crop and motor insurance segments.
Time of India
04-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Restoration of New Market clock tower may start in a fortnight
Kolkata: A report detailing the scope of work for the restoration of the New Market clock tower was submitted to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) by restoration architect Anjan Mitra on Wednesday. The document will form the basis of an agreement to be signed between KMC, which owns the 151-year-old market, and Trisys, which is coordinating the restoration funded by a private firm. According to Mitra, though the project received an in-principle approval, a formal agreement needs to be signed, which is likely to be concluded within a fortnight. Though the tower with the four-faced clock and its Westminster chimes survived many monsoons and storms, it was left battered and bruised by cyclonic storm Amphan. Lack of maintenance thereafter led to further damage. Water seeped in, causing cracks in the structure. The timber floors and decorative elements, including cast iron railings, will have to be redone. The wooden slats in the spire have fallen apart and the Westminster chimes and hourly dongs have stopped. Portions of the intricate glasses that made up the 7-ft diameter dials went missing and wild vegetation has taken root. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like USDJPY đang đi lên không? IC Markets Đăng ký Undo There is also fungal growth. "We will have to strengthen the structural stability of the tower, stop seepage of water, repair the flooring and the interior, improve light and ventilation, replace damaged artwork, and overhaul the clock and its chiming mechanism. The entire work will take around six months," said Mitra, who will lead the restoration team for the project. He has restored the Metropolitan Building, Howrah Town Hall, and Sister Nivedita's house. Before work begins, Mitra also wants KMC to ensure coordination with police for temporary closure of Fenwick Bazar Street when required, arrangement for electric supply, site to stock repair and restoration material, and identify a place to set up temporary labour shelter. KMC MMiC market Amiruddin (Bobby) assured the civic body's cooperation with the agency undertaking the restoration. "We want the clock tower to be restored in a manner that will wow visitors and will do everything needed to extend our cooperation," he said. Swapan and Satyajit Dutta, the father-son duo that repaired and revived multiple public clock mechanisms in the city in recent years, will undertake the restoration of the Gillett & Johnston clock of the UK, in which one mechanism operates all four clocks. "The clock will need a thorough overhaul. The entire process will take around two months," said Satyajit. This is the first such restoration of a govt property to be funded by a private firm. Trisys CEO Mudar Patherya, who has banded together heritage lovers to form Kolkata Restorers that crowd-funded illumination of public buildings and repairs of public clocks, said city-based private firm Techno Electric decided to fund the restoration of the New Market clock tower. Company MD P P Gupta said, "I came to the city 50 years ago as a bank employee, ventured into business and established myself. It feels good to be able to do something for the city."
