SEZs passe, over to education city

India’s first township dedicated to higher education is coming up near Delhi’s border with Haryana and there is a high probability that it will be ready by September.

The Rajiv Gandhi Education City will be spread over 2,000 acres and will house institutes of excellence in biotechnology and nanoscience apart from engineering, Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said recently.

The township will have facilities for both research and teaching, along with quarters for faculty and students.

The enclave is being built at Kundli in Haryana’s Sonepat district, which borders the capital. “The township is not aimed at benefiting Haryana only but also in boosting research and education in the National Capital Region (Delhi and its neighbourhood),” Hooda said.

The National Knowledge Commission, set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to prepare the blueprint for India’s growth as an education powerhouse, had recommended creating such specialised towns.

Sam Pitroda, the commission’s chairman, has also helped develop Mexico City as an education hub with five centres of excellence that focus on a variety of subjects.

Civic body fields tree posers

Mumbai’s civic authorities and tree guardians face court posers on the city’s fast-disappearing green blanket.

Bombay High Court recently asked the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and the tree authority, part of the civic body, to respond to claims that its system of allowing felling was “faulty”.

The NGO that filed the petition said the authority was “always the last to know about trees that were cut”. “There has to be a proper procedure for cutting,” Sumaira Abdulali of the NGO Awaaz said.

It is the responsibility of the authority to maintain greenery in the urban areas, the NGO argued, and claimed that the “tree cess”, collected as part of the property tax, worth around Rs 100 crore “wasn’t being used properly”. The matter will be heard again next month.

The ticket to convenience

The capital’s bus corporation has geared up the Games with a system that changes the way tickets are given.

DTC conductors from the Mayapuri, Sukhdev Vihar and Hasanpur depots will have hand-held electronic ticket machines. The change could be taken to all routes soon.

The ticket overhaul follows its sleek low-floor buses, rolled out with an eye on the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The machines are being used in over 100 buses from the Subhash Place Depot since last month.

“The new machine is portable. Also, this will result in improved revenues by reducing leakages (preventing corruption),” a senior official of the depot said.

The tickets have the fare and route printed on it, and an ad on the other side, giving the corporation extra revenues.

A conductor said the machine was easy to use and convenient. New conductors do not have to remember all the fares since the machine is loaded with route maps.

‘Big catch’

A Rameshwaram fishing village has been abuzz with its new discovery — a 3,000kg dead whale that washed ashore recently.

The site where the mammal had been found, between Adacheri and Thadamunivalandhai in Tamil Nadu’s Ramanathapuram district, was swarming with onlookers, most of them children fascinated by the creature.

orest department officials carted the whale away for post-mortem after which it was buried in the vicinity. There was no official word on how it had died but fishermen who had taken a look said the death was natural.

MUMBAI: Classical music buffs can’t afford to miss Shivkumar Sharma and Zakir Hussain at a workshop exploring the themes of taalim and riyaaz this Wednesday. The event will be held at the NCPA Experimental Theatre, Nariman Point. Call 22824567, 66548135 for more information.