Saket Lal

Port Blair, Feb 12: Andaman and Nicobar Islands maintained 15th place in National Game’s Medal Tally with six gold, three silver and two bronze medals. Altogether Andaman and Nicobar Islands bagged 11 medals in 35th National Games at Kerala.

In women 200 mtrs K1 category Ms. Regina Kiro of Andaman got 1 gold medal while in the 200 mts K2 double Ms. Sandhya Kispota  and Ms. Regina Kiro won another gold in the 500 mts K4 category the team of Ms. Sandhya Kispota, Ms. Neelam Minj, Ms. Pushpa and Ms. Mamta Tirkey won 1 bronze medal.

In the 200 mts elite women sprint final Ms. Deborah lost to Ms. Rameshwari Devi and she was settled for silver medal only. For tomorrow the pair of Mamta and Deborah has qualified for the final of 200 mts team sprit with the Kerala girls. The final will held in the INCP Velodrome at 5 pm tomorrow.

Staff Correspondent

Port Blair, Feb 11: The Kerala and Assam government has already announced that all the gold medal winners in the 35th National Games will be rewarded with Rs 5 lakh each and the silver and bronze medal winners will also be felicitated accordingly.

According to latest update Islands’ Sports persons are performing superbly in the 35th National Games and have won 04 Gold Medals, 02 Silver Medals and 01 Bronze Medal till now.

Hope the Andaman and Nicobar Administration will also announce such prize money for Island players so that they get motivated and others budding sports lovers also get inspiration.

Port Blair, Feb 10: Ecstasea, a local musical group is all set to present a mega show for Islanders on 14 February at ITF Ground on the occasion of Valentine’s Day. The mega show ‘Eve of Love” featuring two reality-show celebrities will remain open for all public totally free of cost.
Dance India Dance-3 winner Rajasmita and Zee TV Saregamapa finalist Madhurima will be performing in the show and entry will be free for all music and dance lovers. According to Ecstasea team, both the artists have re-confirmed their performance for Islanders.
“We are getting huge response from public, who are supper excited about the show,” said Zayed one of the organizers.
Two local youths, Mr. Zayed and Mr. Arup are organizing this event along with entire team of Ecstasea. Ecstasea is a group of all youngsters, between age group of 17 to 25.
Both the celebrities are arriving to Port Blair from Mumbai by 13th Feb 2015 and will be leaving back to Mumbai at 16th Feb.
Ecstasea had already organised show with Indian Idol finalist, Puja Chaterjee, last year on 1st Dec 2013, which was a massive success.

Trinath

Billyground, Jan 30: The Traffic unit of Andaman and Nicobar Police has started a massive drive for tracing illegally operating Commercial vehicles in North & Middle Andaman. From yesterday, the 29/1/2015 a team under the supervision of Traffic Police  Inspector VHF Agusteen  started drive against commercial vehicles, which were plying on ATR without proper documents.

This drive started from Baratang and today the team started checking vehicles at Rangat area in the morning at about 9 AM. Vehicle operators in Rangat area were in confusion for some times that how the Port Blair based Traffic Police could impose fine or seize any vehicle at Rangat area

Police officials informed Andaman Sheekha that such checking has already been held in Hut Bay and Havelock areas and presently they have started in North & Middle Andaman. He said that it is a normal process, the Andaman & Nicobar Traffic Police could act anywhere in A & N Islands to check illegal operation of vehicles. He said,  his team will continue this drive up to Diglipur.

Port Blair, Jan 19: Improving the telecommunication facility and providing quality telecom services has been identified as one of the thrust area of development by A & N Administration. The A&N Administration has identified various areas for development which include improving the telecom bandwidth between Island & mainland for better internet and mobile connectivity. The short term plan is to augment the satellite bandwidth at least up to 1 Gbps while the long term plan is to lay submarine optical fiber cable between mainland and Island.
Apart from this, efforts will be made to spread and penetration of telecom services within the Island and Inter islands so as to reach all the inhabited villages with 2G mobile coverage.
During last 18 months, the A & N Administration has been vigorously following up with Government of India viz. Department of Telecommunication, Department of Space, ISRO, BSNL at various levels. The Lt Governor had taken up the matter with Prime Minister and Minister for Communication & IT for their intervention for improvement of the telecom facility in a time bound manner.
Pursuant to consistent follow up by A & N Administration, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) conducted a detailed study and submitted a comprehensive report to Ministry of Communication and IT in the month of July, 2014. This kind of comprehensive planning in telecom sector was made for the first time which will take care of the requirement for the next 20-25 years.
In reply to the DO letter from the Lt Governor to Ministry for Communication & IT, The Minister has informed that the Ministry has accorded in-principle approval of the recommendation made by TRAI and following actions have been initiated.
Short term- Telecom Commission has accorded approval for the following proposal:
Rs 83.09 crore for providing 2G (Voice) mobile coverage in uncovered villages to be awarded through competitive bidding.
Rs 9.40 crore for providing seamless 2G (Voice) mobile connectivity along National Highway No. 223 from Port Blair to Diglipur to be awarded through competitive bidding.
Rs 20 crore for augmentation of Intra-Island OFC network to be awarded to BSNL on nomination basis.
Rs 82.44 crore for ground equipments to augment satellite bandwidth to be awarded to BSNL on nomination basis.
Long Term: Based on the decision taken by the Planning Commission, M/s Telecommunication Consultant of India Limited (TCIL) have been entrusted with the task of conducting desktop study and preparation of DPR. It is expected that report and DPR would be submitted by TCIL by 15th February, 2015. Thereafter, the report and DPR would be placed before Telecom Commission and Cabinet for approval of the project of laying submarine cable between Chennai Cable Landing Station and Port Blair Cable Landing Station.
Further, as per the direction of Cabinet Secretary, BSNL has taken action to augment the satellite bandwidth in phases. BSNL has hired 2 transponders from recently launched foreign Satellite (THAICOM-7) thus increasing the bandwidth by 50 Mbps taking the total satellite bandwidth up to 364 Mbps. BSNL is also in the process of hiring 6 transponders from THAICOM-7 which will give additional 300 Mbps of bandwidth and 6 Transponders from GSAT-16 (Indian Satellite) which will give additional 300 Mbps thus taking the overall bandwidth to 1 Gbps.
The above activity is expected to be completed by end of April, 2015. The increase in satellite bandwidth capacity if not sufficient will give some relief to the Islanders thus improving the quality of broad band, 2G and 3G services offered by BSNL a communication received here said.

Sarthak Kanjilal & Pranoy Halder
Port Blair, Jan 08: Staffs of DC Office and Municipal Council today removed all illegal makeshift food stalls and other petty shops from Port Blair city considering the visit of Vice President of India. Today a drive was conducted at ITF Ground area and Corbyn’s Chowk.
The Deputy Commissioner of South Andaman, Ms. Tanvy Garg also reportedly visited spots, sources said.
Vice President’s visit has hit those people very hard, who raise makeshift stalls along the ITF ground road during Island Tourism Festival every year.
The Vice President of India, Mr. M. Hamid Ansari will be visiting A&N Islands from 10-13th Jan, 2015. The Vice President will be accompanied by his wife Smt. Salma Ansari.
The A&N Administration has drawn up an elaborate programme for the ensuing visit of the Vice President to the Islands. Besides attending a number of programmes at Port Blair, the Vice President will also be visiting Havelock Island and Car Nicobar. On completion of his tour, the Vice President is scheduled to leave for mainland on Jan 13, 2015.