Black Tornado heroes to protect city

The commandos who shot down the terrorists during the Taj Hotel and Nariman House siege in Mumbai last November will head the National Security Guard hub in the city

Brigadier Subash Rangi and Lt Col. Sandeep Sen, who took part in Operation Black Tornado following the November 26 terror attack, will be leading the team of 250 NSG commandos to protect the city against jihadi terrorists as well as Maoists

“We will be dealing with counter terrorism and counter hijack operations,” said Brig. Rangi. “We are not going to say that we will not touch left wing extremism. In case a situation of specific nature comes up like a hostage situation we will be dealing with it.” The local NSG hub will be covering Hyderabad and nearby areas and other cities within the State

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A 46-year plan for a 15-minute ride

The numbers tell the story of the Bandra-Worli Sealink: 2,983 days, 2.57 crore man hours, 3,000 men from 11 countries, a bill of Rs 852 crore, innumerable delays and controversies. And don’t forget the 46 years it took to go from idea to reality.

The story begins in 1963, when US-based planning firm Wilbur Smith, in a report titled Planning of Road System for Mumbai Metropolitan Region recommended a road through the sea from Versova to Nariman Point.

But that report met the same fate as countless other forward-looking documents do — it was kept in cold storage due to the high cost projection.

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Dawood brother handles hawala network

Mafia don Dawood Ibrahim’s younger brother, Mustakeen, has taken over the entire hawala network of D-Company. The hawala route is used by D-Company to fund terror activities in India.

Though the hawala network has been handed over to Mustakeen, Dawood Ibrahim continues to control both the drug trafficking and fake currency networks of D-Company.

An official of the Intelligence Bureau revealed that “at present DCompany’s hawala operation is being controlled from three centres in India — Azamgarh (Uttar Pradesh), Delhi and Mumbai”. The entire operation is monitored from Nepal. The organised crime kingpins have set up a so called “central monitoring system” in the Himalayan kingdom. Mustakeen, whose whereabouts continue to remain unknown to the security agencies, is in charge of this “monitoring system” in Nepal, IB sources said.

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Rahmania grips Oscars

The cast and crew of Slumdog Millionaire celebrated their 10 Oscar nominations at the film’s India premiere in Mumbai on Thursday night. At a star-studded red carpet event, as congratulations poured in, they broke into an impromptu bhangra session to toast the achievement.

While most of the cast was in Mumbai, music director A.R. Rahman, who bagged three nominations, was away in Chennai working on the film Delhi 6.

When contacted, an excited Rahman shouted over the phone: “I am on top of the world. I don’t have words to describe how I feel. I am choking with joy. I believe the love and prayers of millions of Indians made it possible. It’s a dream come true.”

“It is unbelievable! I think our chances are very bright, I feel the world is going to change for good.” Director Danny Boyle said he was “proud” of the film and saluted the city it is based in.

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Mumbai Under Attack

Terrorists virtually took over posh South Mumbai on Wednesday night, attacking the Taj and Oberoi hotels as well as the Trident and the Ramada, the Chhattrapati Shivaji Terminus railway hub and other places with AK-47 assault rifles and grenades. At least 78 people were killed and around 200 others seriously injured.

The Army had arrived at the Oberoi when reports last came in. The Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad had entered the Taj hotel.

Two of the city’s biggest five-star hotels, the Oberoi and the Taj, were under siege. Gunmen are reported to have taken hostages, including some MPs, in the Taj. Ten gunmen were holed up inside both the hotels. A blast occurred at the Taj at 12.15 am.

Gunfire was also reported from the Ramada Hotel late in the night. At one point, the terrorists were tossing grenades out of the windows of the hotels. More explosions were later heard.

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Patna youth hijacks bus in Mumbai, shot

It was just another crowded, peak-hour bus journey for Mumbaikars on board the No 332 BEST bus on Monday morning.

Until one of the passengers — 25-year-old Rahul Raj — pulled out an iron chain and a gun, attacked the bus conductor, and began indiscriminate firing, yelling he wanted to take revenge on Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray .

Thackeray’s MNS loyalists recently set Mumbai and other parts of the country— on fire, attacking candidates from other states appearing for a railway examination in Mumbai.

Forty minutes later, the police cordoned off the area and Rahul, who came to the city three days ago from Bihar, was shot dead.

The police stormed the bus after he refused to surrender. Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil justified the police action: “If anyone uses bullet, obviously he would get a bullet.” Political leaders from Bihar, including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Union ministers Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan met the prime minister and demanded a judicial probe.

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Japan will loan $1billion for metro in Chennai

The first beneficiary of the coming together of the “samurai” and the “swami” will be the Chennai metro, for which Japan will give a $1 billion loan.

Japan will also extend a soft loan of $4.5 million over three years as part of the first tranche of funding for the 1,469-km Mumbai Delhi western freight corridor from Jawaharlal Nehru Port near Mumbai to Tughlaqabad near Delhi.

The move to invest in the southern city as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived here Tuesday on a three-day visit to Japan is certain to give a fillip to bilateral relations. Indian officials openly acknowledge they owe the Taro Aso government in Japan a “debt of gratitude” for unreservedly backing the NSG waiver for India in Vienna.

Chennai’s connection to Japan stems not just from superstar Rajnikanth, whose films are dubbed in Japanese and hugely popular here. This country is also the major donor to war-torn Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, where New Delhi has huge stakes.

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Crew, including 18 Indians, of hijacked ship safe

Eighteen Indians are among 22 crew aboard a Mumbai-bound ship that was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden near the Horn of Africa on Monday.

The Hong Kong-registered MT Stolt Valor was bound for Mumbai from the Suez Canal with a load of oil products when armed pirates seized it about 38 nautical miles off the coast of Yemen.

The pirates have taken the ship to Somalia but no demands have yet been made. The crew is reported to be safe.

The Indians aboard the Stolt Valor are mostly from Mumbai. The other crew includes two Filipinos, a Bangladeshi and a Russian.

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Gujarat turns to Shanghai developers to build a ‘towering’ financial hub

Mumbai's Shanghai dreams may not have taken off, but Gujarat may soon be getting there. The state is working on a customised financial services and business district, to be designed by a company that has built more than two-third of Shanghai’s buildings.

A team of designers from the East China Architectural Design and Research Institute (ECADI) was here last week to present concept designs of six skyscrapers — one may possibly be the tallest in India — for the planned Gujarat International Finance Tec-city (GIFT).

The project, which will be located along the eastern banks of Sabarmati on the outskirts of Gandhinagar, will have the region’s tallest high rise — over 350 metres. The signature skyscraper is likely to be called “The Diamond Tower” to mark Gujarat’s eminence as the diamond hub of the world.

The other highrises too will be based on a special theme. While promoters are tightlipped about the project details, the towers are expected to measure 200-350 metres high, and will “carry the imprint of Gujarat’s cultural heritage”.

“First, we have to sell the space,” says GIFT chairman Sudhir Mankad, amid hectic parleys that have seen memoranda of understanding for over 80 million sq ft of business space against 75 million sq ft planned for the first phase by 2010.

A joint venture between the Gujarat Urban Development Company (GUDC) and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS), GIFT is to be benchmarked as a global finance hub on the lines of London Dockyards, Lujiazui Shanghai, or Shinjuku in Tokyo.

While some work in the form of levelling of land has already begun, sources say the construction activity was likely to begin in September. Spread over 500 acres, the core area of GIFT would be a showcase business district, with its engineering geared for a “plug-n-play” and “walk-to-work” concepts.

“Details are being worked out keeping in mind 100 years of scalability, so that the ground infrastructure would need no changes,” say sources.

The hub will be connected to the Gandhinagar-Ahmedabad highway through two landmark bridges on the Sabarmati and a possible tunnel under the river.

“Given the scale, much underground work will need to be done in terms of laying the cables, pipes, wires to enable those highrises,” say government officials.

With the Gujarat government and IL&FS contributing Rs 25 crore each by way of equity, GIFT would also consider going public in more favourable market conditions. The construction cost is pegged at Rs 50,000 crore. Sources in the Chief Minister’s Office say GIFT would be hawked during the upcoming Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit.

ECADI is credited with building or designing prestigious landmark buildings in Shanghai like the Shanghai World Financial Centre (101 floors, 492 m), Shimao International Plaza (60 floors, 330 m), 21st Century Tower (48 floors, 180 m), Jin Mao Tower (88 floors, 421 m), Pudong International Airport, Shanghai Oriental Art Centre, and the Shanghai Supreme People’s Court.

Bombay HC judge's 'drunk' son mows down man

The son of a Bombay High Court ran his car over a man in Mumbai's D N Nagar area on Thursday night. The police have registered an FIR against the accused who was allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol. The victim has been admitted to the hospital with injuries. This is not the first time that children of high profile people have been caught on the wrong side of the law.

Last year, 21-year-old Alistair Pereira, the son of a Mumbai-based industrialist had rammed his Toyota Corolla in the pavement at Bandra killing sleeping labourers. Seven labourers had died and several others were injured. The Bombay High Court had re-opened the case after a public outcry over a sessions court judgement which let off Pereira leniently with just a six-month jail term and a fine of Rs five rupees.

Pereira has now been sentenced to three years’ Rigourous Imprisonment under Section 304, one year under Section 338 and six months for causing grevious injuries. In January 1999, Sanjeev Nanda, the son of a Navy officer, was driving his BMW in an "inebriated" state and ran over six people in New Delhi. It is alleged that Nanda and his friends, who were travelling in the car, fled the scene of the accident though the police found some bloodstains on the vehicle later.

More recently, actor Salman Khan was charged with running over pavement dwellers in Mumbai, allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol.
image and article source:ibnlive.com