ETHNICITY, Siliguri
A city in India, connecting South & Southeast Asia
From the desk of a traveler
Mahananda, the greatest happiness, is the name of the river that criss-crosses the city of Siliguri at various places, the backdrop being dominated by the snow-capped peaks of the Mt.Kanchenjunga range and the people of diverse origin, living in peace.
Siliguri was unknown to the world till the late nineteenth century, and it was then, that the Railways made their appearance by first connecting Siliguri to Calcutta through present Bangladesh and then connecting Siliguri to Darjeeling by the legendary Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR). The DHR still continues in steam to be the World Heritage Site.
As an international Biker, I have travelled several sub-continents and ofcourse a large part of India before arriving Siliguri. I was on my way completing my Himalaya Expedition, and I decided to be at Siliguri to get the route details from a very rooted organization of this Northeastern region known as Help Tourism.
This stopover at Siliguri became an exploration for me. I met some of the officials of CII, North Bengal and Sikkim Chapter, where they invited me to some happening places in and around this city. It is here that I came to know that this was the fastest growing city of India and the signs of development were clear. The malls and movie halls were at par with any city of the world, so were the medical facilities, well established schools, authentic dining and hotels of international standards.
The best part of the city is that inspite of the development the greens and breathing spaces still remains. Firstly, the man made plantations of tea, which were started 150 years ago remain as active through the century. A fifteen minutes drive from the heart of the city gave me the insight of the tea industry. A ten minutes drive took me to the elephant habitat of high forests, the landscape which dominated the famous novel by Sarat Chandra Chatterjee ‘Anandamath’, from where we got our National song ‘Vande Mataram’.
While I was making two days to week long trips to the Sikkim Himalaya, I came across another famous ‘old man on the bike’, Simon Gandolfi who spoke about the Neora Valley Jungle Camp at the trijunction of Bhutan, Sikkim and Darjeeling Hills of West Bengal. I visited the camp and was wonderstruck with the beauty and facilities there. Also I visited several places in Sikkim like Namthang, Yumthang and Hee.
Most of the places were only three to seven hours drive from Siliguri. I hope to drive from Lhasa one day and pass through this city to City of Siliguri, drive through Bangladesh, Burma and reach Bangkok, a land route that existed through centuries, but closed because of reasons unknown to common people like me.
- Pankaj Trivedi,
http://blog.hornokplz.tv.
Contents in this issue:
1) Workshop on Siliguri-A tourism Hub held on 10th April, 2010.
An initiative taken by CII with the venue being the newly opened Hotel Royal Sarovar Premiere witnessed a phenomenal attendance of 49 responsible citizens of Siliguri. This 49 delegates are excluding the Minister for Urban Development and Municipal Affairs, Shri.Ashok Bhattacharya, the Mayor of Siliguri Municipal Corporation, Smt.Gangotri Dutta and the Deputy Mayor, Shri.Nantu Paul.
After the welcome speech from the President CII-North Bengal and Sikkim, Shri.Ramgopal Jajodia, Raj Basu spoke on the theme of the workshop. Several persons put forward their views on the subject and the feedback of all the individuals was also taken.
In this issue, we shall deal with the response, feedback, commitments and responsibilities that emerged from this workshop.
Developments required for the City
1) Masterplan for the city, infrastructural and environmental.
2) Introduce a proper traffic system.
3) Broader Roads and more flyovers in the main city centre area.
4) Hawker free footpaths and foot over-bridges on the main road crossings.
5) Create parking areas in the city centres.
6) Stop permissions to any new high rises.
7) Waste free city.
Shortfalls of the City
1) Bad condition roads connecting the city from Airport, Railway station, Jalpaiguri and the hills.
2) Tourism information facility almost missing.
3) Irregular power.
4) Lack of parks and green zones.
5) River front neglected.
6) Parking and traffic situation.
7) Lack architectural creativity.
8) Convention, exhibition and event centres.
9) Drinking water and Sulabh complexes.
10) NJP adjoining areas in mess.
Short Term Vision-2012
1) Name of Bagdogra Airport and NJP to be changed to Siliguri for better geographical identification.
2) Pollution free and waste free city.
3) Better roads, electricity and internet connectivity.
4) Better traffic and parking.
5) Better tourism information facility.
6) Unoccupied roads and footpaths.
7) Strike/Bandh free city.
8) Political peace and better situation in the hills.
9) To connect Dhaka and Kathmandu by air from Bagdogra.
10) Quality city transport network and not polluting or careless city autos.
Long term Vision-2020
1) Siliguri a Railway Heritage City.
2) Siliguri a Tea Heritage City.
3) State of art health facilities.
4) Many more world class hotels.
5) International level Convention and Exhibition centres.
6) Wonderful road connectivity with international borders, hills, Dooars, airport and railway station.
7) Several well planned green centres in the city.
8) Traffic and parking model of the country.
9) Information centre for trade and tourism as an International Tourism Hub with maps. Brochures and online information.
10) An International sustainable developmental model.
Tea Tourism, scope and shortfall
1) Immense scope, completely unutilized.
2) Lack of vision and policy.
3) Accommodate tourism infrastructure development policy within present lease terms.
4) Priority to organic and waste free model gardens/estates.
Grading of services/facilities
1) Railways and Air services were voted best.
2) Law and Order situation of Siliguri was voted second best.
3) Traffic, Roadways, Power and Tourism Help Desk was mostly voted the worst and the last in choice.
Everyone unanimously voted for Health/Wellness tourism, standardization of rates for tourist services like Taxis, Hotels, Food and Guides, a multi-utility cultural centre to highlight the city and the immediate need for a Handicraft centre in the lines of Dilli Haat at New Delhi.
A common agreement was reached in publishing a monthly info book on Siliguri and adjoining region, better online presence, publicity and advertisement promotion, presence at all travel and trade marts nationally and internationally and capacity building of all working groups.
2) Queens Baton of the Commonwealth Games
It was an opportunity for the people of Siliguri to witness the Queen’s Baton of the Commonwealth Games, hence an international recognization as a sports city.
3) International sports celebrities, Sourav Ganguly and Leander Paes to be present at Siliguri towards the end of this month.
4) Sixth round of Darjeeling Tripartite meeting on July 24th may bring peace in the region. The professionals and stakeholders of the region dominated by politicians.
5) Asia’s largest travel mart, TTF to be held at Kolkata Netaji Indoor Stadium between 31st July to 2nd August, 2010.
Note: This information has been compiled by Raj Basu and P.K.Shah and published with support from CII (North Bengal and Sikkim) Secretariat as on 20th July, 2010.
surfing the net I came across your blog which is mindawakening to any Siliguriite. I too believe name of airport and Rly station of the City should be siliguri whichever district or administrative domain the area may belong to. Like Kolkata airport in North 24 parganas, Kolkata Doordarshan in South 24 parganas. Doordarshan Siliguri was named after Jalpaiguri for its location in Phulbari. NJP was originally named New Siliguri, but a certain faction of Jalpaiguri residents lead by the then Chairman of Jalpaiguri Municipality Late Khagen Sarkar, a congress leader started movement with Rly as well as the then Congress govt of Delhi while residents of Siliguri surrendered to the political might of Jalpaiguri. There is no logic to name a new rly station 5 km. from siliguri town station after Jalpaiguri which is 45 km away. It seems all rly stations in this district should be renamed as old jalpai, very old jalpai, newer jalpai so on and so forth. Recently New siliguri substation of WBSEB in Sahudangi on the outskirt of Siliguri has been silently renamed as New Jalpaiguri. How long this will continue in the name of a district.CII and other forums must look into the matter immediately. For instance the animosity with the development of Siliguri is such that when The Statesman was first published its Siliguri edition, instantly some rebellor wrote in the letter to editor that it should be Jalpaiguri for Phulbari where from it is being published is in their District, The editor however discarded any such possibility by saying that Siliguri is the focal centre of the region where the daily caters to, geography or administration has nothing to do with naming of the edition.
ReplyDeleteThe message should be spread. CII and other organisations should raise the issue and take necessary action.
ReplyDeleteMany people consider that NJP station is the railway station of Jalpaiguri instead Siliguri. If the government can change the old names of other places in West Bengal recently then why can't change the name of NJP railway station whose old name is New Siliguri?
Bagdogra airport is in Siliguri Sub-division and the airport of Siliguri city, so it also needs to be renamed after siliguri.