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Time of India
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
PM Narendra Modi to unveil Indore's first Metro, 2 airports in Madhya Pradesh today
BHOPAL/INDORE: Indore, the country's cleanest city, will get its first Metro train on Saturday when Prime Minister Narendra Modi flags off the inaugural run during his visit to Bhopal for a Women Empowerment Conference on the 300th birth anniversary of Devi Ahilyabai. The PM will also inaugurate Satna and Datia airports, lay the foundation for construction of ghats on River Kshipra under a Rs 778 crore project and transfer the first instalment for 1,271 new panchayat bhavans, costing Rs 483 crore. PM Modi will release a postage stamp and 35g coin dedicated to Lokmata Devi Ahilyabai. A govt official said the Rs 300-denomination coin is the first such in the world. Governor Mangubhai Patel, chief minister Mohan Yadav and Union culture minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will attend the event at Bhopal's Jamboree Maidan where the PM will address a gathering of over 2 lakh women. The CM said it will be a "historic day" for Madhya Pradesh. Over 150 years after the Holkar rulers initiated construction of Indore's first railway line (to Khandwa) at a cost of Rs 1 crore, a Rs 7,500 crore is on to give citizens a hassle-free commute across the historic city. The network is over 31.3km long, of which the first stretch of 6km will be inaugurated by the PM on Saturday. Indore Metro's opening route has five stations: Gandhinagar and Super Corridor-6, 5, 4 and 3.
Time of India
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
PM inaugurates expansion of Kanpur Metro services
1 2 Kanpur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated the expansion of Kanpur Metro's passenger services in the presence of chief minister Yogi Adityanath at a public gathering held at the CSA ground. With this, five new underground stations—Chunniganj, Naveen Market, Bada Chauraha, Nayaganj, and Kanpur Central—have been added to the existing Metro network. Starting tomorrow at 6 am, commuters will be able to travel the nearly 16-km-long Metro corridor from IIT Kanpur to Kanpur Central, which now comprises 14 stations. During his visit to the city, the Prime Minister officially flagged off the Metro service expansion by pressing a remote button and waving the green flag. Addressing the gathering, PM Modi said, "The facilities and infrastructure seen in the major metropolitan cities are now becoming visible in Kanpur as well. A few years ago, our government gifted Kanpur its first Metro. Today, the Orange Line of Kanpur Metro has reached Kanpur Central. The city now boasts both elevated and underground Metro lines, connecting key areas of the city. Traffic used to be a major issue in Kanpur, and many doubted whether a Metro could ever be built here. But today, we are witnessing the successful operation of an extraordinary project like Kanpur Metro. Known as a major commercial hub, the city now offers better accessibility to traders and customers, especially to places like Naveen Market and Bada Chauraha" Speaking on the occasion, chief minister Yogi Adityanath said, "Today, the Prime Minister is graciously inaugurating the expanded passenger services of Kanpur Metro. I heartily welcome and congratulate him. The construction of the Metro has given a new identity to the industrial city and has significantly improved its transportation system." Following the green flag signal at 3.21 pm, the Kanpur Metro departed from Nayaganj station. On board the specially decorated inaugural train were children from schools and NGOs, waving the national flag and carrying hand-made drawings dedicated to Operation Sindoor and Kanpur Metro. The train was operated by women train operators Karishma Gupta and Deeksha Rajput. It travelled from Nayaganj to Chunniganj and then returned to Nayaganj. Residents of Kanpur will be able to travel from IIT Kanpur to Kanpur Central beginning at 6 am on Saturday. :00 AM. Commuters will be welcomed at stations with rosebuds and sweets. Tickets will be available through ticket counters, vending machines, NCMC cards, and the Kanpur Metro mobile app. The PM had also inaugurated the Priority Corridor (IIT to Moti Jheel) of the Kanpur Metro on December 28, 2021. Expressing his delight at the successful expansion of services, Sushil Kumar, managing director of Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC), said, "A long-cherished dream of the city has turned into reality. We are immensely grateful to the people of Kanpur for their unwavering support throughout the construction process."
Metro
5 hours ago
- Metro
'I survived the Tunisia terror attack by swimming out to sea'
Colin Bidwell was never a religious man, but he prayed three times on June 26, 2015. It had taken him a few days to settle into his sunshine break in Sousse, Tunisia, with his wife Chris, but as he sprawled on a sun lounger in front of the ocean on his penultimate day, he finally felt thoroughly relaxed. Then, at around noon, terrorist Seifeddine Rezgui stormed the beach armed with an automatic rifle that he'd hidden in a beach umbrella and opened fire. 'I remember vividly an hour before it happened, I looked out directly at the ocean and thought to myself: 'This is the life. This is wonderful.' I'm a bit of a fidgety person; I'm not the best at lying down and relaxing, but I was trying hard that holiday to zone out,' the painter and decorator from Windlesham, Surrey, tells Metro. 'You'd never think it was going to happen.' At first, Colin thought the 'pops' he heard were fireworks, until he saw his terrified wife heading towards the hotel, urging him to run. He felt the bullets ricochet off the sand as he sprinted to hide behind an upturned boat. 'It was pure shock, right to the core. I wouldn't wish it on anybody. There was the gunfire going on, and I thought that was it. That he was coming down, finishing everybody off. I prayed for my life, and then I looked up and saw the sea in front of me. 'I thought: 'I could die here, or I could die running'. So I ran down the beach and swam out as far as I could,' Colin, 60, recalls. When he thought it was safe, he stopped and started to tread water. 'Then I got tired, and the panic set in. That's when I prayed again. I don't know how I did it, but I pointed my toe and found a rock sticking up. I managed to get my breath. And then luckily, [local man] Mohammed saw me and picked me up in the boat. He told me I'd been bitten by a fish.' The bleeding was in fact where Colin had been grazed twice by Rezgui's bullets, but the adrenaline had blanked out the pain. Mohammed dropped him off at a nearby hotel where he thought he'd be safe. 'I knew the area. So I thought I'd go from the hotel to a mobile police station at the end of the road. But I jumped over a wall and there he was.' Rezgui had left the beach and was inland, having entered the nearby five-star Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel and shooting at anyone who crossed his path. Colin lowered himself behind the wall so he wouldn't be seen, and then he heard a commotion as another local came to his rescue. Moncef Mayel, who lived nearby, was watching everything from a nearby balcony and started throwing ceramic tiles down to distract Rezgui. Moments later, it would all be over. Police opened fire, and the 23-year-old attacker was shot dead. Rezgui had killed 38 tourists, 30 of them from the UK. It was the greatest British loss of life in a terror attack since the London bombings in 2005. ISIS later claimed responsibility. As soon as he could, Colin headed down to the beach to see if any of the bodies, now covered with beach towels, belonged to Chris – making his final prayer that he would find her alive. 'Then I saw her in the hotel, in her yellow bikini. We ran to each other and held each other. It was an amazing thing because we'd survived. 'I'm not a deeply religious guy, but I'm now a great believer in the power of prayer. I prayed that day three times, and I survived,' he explains. Colin doesn't like to talk about the attack, partly because it is traumatic but mainly because he is acutely aware that while the pair of them made it out alive, many others didn't. The couple returned to the UK, where they suffered from the aftereffects. Chris would repeatedly check that the doors were closed and locked. Sometimes she struggled to leave the house, panicking in the car, and to this day, she has to know where the exits are when they go to a restaurant. Meanwhile, Colin would unexpectedly taste salt in his mouth – perhaps as a result of the panic while treading water – and they were both jumpy around Fireworks Night. 'Your awareness is dialled up to 11. You think everybody around you could be a threat. You don't feel safe. You never think something like this is going to happen to you, and when it does, you can't help but think it's going to happen again,'he says. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video As the impact of the trauma started to subside, Colin was eager to make sense of what he'd been through, so he decided to go to the local mosque. 'I was a stereotypical guy who worked on construction sites. I was very ignorant when it came to other religions. When I went to the mosque, I was watching people with backpacks and thinking: 'Is he going in there with that?' I didn't cope well with it.' But after meeting the Imam and his wife, Colin learned that the attack wasn't religious, but political. 'I came to understand that you can take things literally in the Quran that can be completely misinterpreted. And I learned that understanding more about people's faiths might help to stop something like this happening again.' A year after the attack, Colin made the difficult decision to return to Sousse to thank Mohammed, Moncef and the hotel staff who had helped, and to find peace. 'Both my grandfathers, who were in World War II, played a huge part in my life. One was in Dunkirk, and the other was behind the lines in Burma. I remember both of them saying that they wished they had gone back sooner – that they could cope better afterwards. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done, but one of the best things I've ever done, because it was healing,' he explains. Following the attack, Colin found a deep appreciation of life and became more in touch with himself. He had what he described as a 'spiritual awakening' and decided that, as he had been spared, he wanted to be the best person he could be. When he was approached by the Institute of Strategic Dialogue, a think tank that aims to conquer extremism, and was asked to talk to people who were being radicalised, he jumped at the chance. 'We're all here for a purpose, and I think mine was just to become a better person. If we all have a bit of that, there'd be a lot more peace in the world,' he adds. 'It was around the time when there were a lot of beheadings being put out on social media, and the Institute found that if you reached out early to some of these people that were either posting this or were the contributors to the original filming, they would think more carefully about what they would do next. 'I would try to talk to these people over Facebook, and over time, I started making headway. There were a couple that I spoke to over quite a long period of time, and I think I made a difference. I was doing a couple of hours every night, telling people that I was a survivor and challenging their beliefs.' More Trending Ten years since the attack, Colin has made his peace with the human world, but has a way to go with the natural world. He used to love the ocean, but after fearing he might drown at sea during the attack, he has yet to return to the waves. He holidays on the Isle of Wight, or if he goes abroad, the couple stay in villas inland. 'Recovering from the trauma is an ongoing process,' he explains. 'You learn to live with it. You can't let it bring you down or live your life in fear. I will go out and swim like I used to. I know I'm going to make my peace with it, sooner or later.' Surviving the Tunisia Beach Attack is out now on Prime Video, produced by Yeti Television. MORE: The jacket potato's unstoppable rise – and the Preston brothers leading the revolution MORE: I couldn't train my deaf puppy so I taught him sign language MORE: I live in a 'murder house' – this is what it's really like
Time of India
5 hours ago
- General
- Time of India
Widened Nag River Flows Close to Metro Pillars Near Krazy Castle; Safety Measures in Place
1 2 Nagpur: The ambitious Nag River widening project, aimed at mitigating flood risks in the city, has reached a technically complex stretch near the former Krazy Castle amusement park — where the riverbed now runs extremely close to Metro Pillars 176 and 177. While the river is currently dry due to ongoing construction, the situation is drawing attention with the onset of early monsoon, which will soon bring water into the newly widened channel. The project, executed by MahaMetro, involves widening the riverbed to 18 metres to restore its flow capacity and avoid bottlenecks like the one that contributed to the city's flood on September 23, 2023. However, achieving this width near the Metro alignment posed a unique challenge, as the channel edges came within metres of live infrastructure. When TOI visited the site, it was found that on one side of the viaduct, where the retaining wall is yet to be built, the widened riverbed was literally brushing against the pillar base, with one face of the pillar exposed to the open. Though there is no water flow currently, the close proximity has raised questions about preparedness before the rains arrive. Responding to concerns, Rajeev Tyagi, director (projects), MahaMetro, said that extensive precautions were taken to safeguard both, the Metro structure and public traffic. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Projeto da Prefeitura de SP de apoio a empreendedores completa 6 anos Estúdio Folha Leia mais Undo "To achieve the required width near the piers without disrupting live roadways or compromising safety, a series of pile foundations was cast near the existing Metro pier," he said. A total of 30 piles — each 600mm in diameter and 8.5m deep — were installed in just two days. "Piling was done while maintaining a safe distance from the Metro's overhead electrical (OHE) lines. Near the structures, piling was executed at night after commercial Metro operations ended, and the OHE was discharged to ensure absolute safety," Tyagi added. After piling, MahaMetro began work on a 30-metre-long jacketing wall, designed with curvature around the piers to allow smooth water flow. The height of the wall is aligned with High Flood Level (HFL) data provided by civic bodies. Officials say the widened section will help increase discharge capacity to 140 cumecs as recommended, reducing flood risk downstream. They emphasised that safety measures were planned and implemented to ensure that both Metro infrastructure and future river flows are secured.
Vancouver Sun
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Vancouver Sun
Letters to the Sun: Metro needs a non-political oversight body that reports to the people directly
Re: Former premier and Vancouver mayor Mike Harcourt calls for radical change at Metro Vancouver We have to realize that the real problem in Metro Vancouver is the revolving hordes of elected officials (federal, provincial and municipal) who are all well meaning in wanting to do public service. Mike Harcourt's proposal only lessens the number. It is still politicians trying to do the best in areas that most lack expertise, as pointed out in the report. A model that would eliminate the expertise deficiencies of the politicians would be to turn most of what Metro does into non-profit utilities. This should include water, waste water and solid waste, and TransLink. Governments should allow these utilities to issue bonds (like savings bonds) to raise money for the infrastructure that is needed to meet the needs of the a growing region into the future. Good transparent governance is essential with a non-political oversight body that reports to the people directly. A daily roundup of Opinion pieces from the Sun and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Informed Opinion will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. This will also eliminate the need of different levels of government for funding that will get harder as each political party give us tax cuts and thus not enough money to fund an efficient running of a country. John Consiglio, North Vancouver Re: King Charles III and the glorious weirdness of Canada's monarchy I enjoyed reading Ben Woodfinden's comments in the Sun about King Charles's whirlwind visit to Canada. Surely no one can deny the irony of Canada inviting the King of the United Kingdom to assume the role of King of Canada and read out the speech from the throne to open our parliament — in an effort to demonstrate our sovereignty. The King of Canada does not live in Canada, has no residence here, and has visited only six times in the past 25 years. Wearing a red tie hardly makes up for not speaking out against President Trump's outrageous calls for the annexation of our country. Nor does it make up for, under the circumstances, inviting Trump to meet him in London for a cosy state visit. Perhaps his visit to Canada has done no great harm other than to somewhat diminish our claim to being a sovereign nation, but it certainly has done no good. Richard Hoover, Delta Re: B.C.'s prosperity depends on a strong post-secondary system Our country and province face unparalleled opportunities and crises. The saying 'never let a good crisis go to waste' comes to mind. Three-quarters of our exports go to a country whose president says that the U.S. doesn't need anything Canada has. Canadian exporters face four years of chaotic, constantly changing White House executive orders, rendering long-term planning a futile exercise. Meanwhile, the global system of international trade of goods and services is up for grabs. There is a critical need to diversify our exports. This entails new products, new companies, extensive research and development, and a workforce with a different skills set. At the same time, the White House is dismantling the American constellation of research universities, such as MIT, that have delivered technological 'golden eggs' for decades. Any history of Silicon Valley highlights the critical role of Stanford University in turning farm land into the homes for multi-billion dollar corporations. The flood of world-class researchers from continental Europe to the U.S. during the Second World War vaulted American universities to the top of the rankings. Today, three generations later, world-class American researchers and talented, highly motivated graduate students will be searching for a new home. Why not Canada? Any strategy for diversifying our economy is preconditioned on a strong post-secondary education sector. If our governments have vision, our universities can recruit top researchers who can help us reinvent our industries and create new ones. We will also need to retrain our workforce. Canada needs dynamic post-secondary education institutions with the resources to create a range of new programs, in partnership with industry, from just-in-time skills-based training to specialized graduate degrees. Instead of dismantling our colleges and universities, our governments should be empowering them, giving them the resources to help create the future. John Shepherd, Richmond Letters to the editor should be sent to sunletters@
