Choto Cheeta Online

Singur to Sanand – Mamta to Modi (My cross country trip)

There wont be a single man /women / child present in West Bengal or may be in India who doesn’t know about the mess what is created in Singur on TATA Nano plant controversy.

What is Singur ?

Its an area comprising many villages. Its around 50km drive from Kolkata, via NH2 (Durgapur Express way).

What is the mess ?

TATA wanted to build a massive car manufacturing plant for building their dream project of USD 3000 car and West Bengal government (CM Buddhadeb Babu) selected the place (Singur) for the purpose where as opposition party Trinamool Congress (Leader Mamta Didi) went all out attack to stop government and TATA on land accusation.

It was and still is an all out fight..

What is Sanand ?

Sanand is a city and a municipality in Ahmadabad district. Which is around 40km of drive from Ahmadabad in state of Gujarat, in which TATA is shifting their NANA plant from Singur (West Bengal) because of stiff fight and violent protest by opposition party (TMC) which is dead against of land accusation.

Singur to Sanand – Mamta to Modi..

Well, above is what we read and watch in news channels every alternate day. But the thing which has strucked me is how many of us, who actually lives in Kolkata and discusses about the issue every single day has visited these places ?

None..

So I told my self, why not going over there.. Yeah, why not ?

Trip to Singur.. Feb 12, 2009..

Its around 40km from Kolkata and just beside the NH2 Durgrapur Expressway.

So I took my Hunk and started for Singur at around 09:30 in the morning. Road condition were excellent compare to other Indian roads. It took just half an hour to reach Singur and I could calculate that my odd meter reporting it was close to 58km..

I came face to face with the ground reality as soon as I reached the project site. There is still such a huge tension between the ruling party and opposition over the land acquisition. Large number of Armed police is present where as both sides are hosing their protest march and meetings !!

I was not allowed to take picture and I was asked to not to stop while continue my ride by the National Highway guard. I could only manage few pictures as I continue down the Nh2.

Trip to Sanand.. On my way..

That is some what 3000 km away from my place. Western side of my country.

I have looked and found, there is only one direct train from Kolkata to Ahmadabad, which takes around 3 days to reach its destination, hence I have booked my journey on Indigo flight of Feb 13, 2009.

By the way, do you know that in India the flight tickets are cheapest in entire world. USD 0.02 / INR 1 is from Kolkata to Ahmedabad direct flight.

Now this is some thing different that you are asked to pay the highest amount of TAX applicable anywhere in the world.

Flight Time

I caught Indigo 6E 409 from Kolkata to Ahmadabad and which landed at 13:50 after a 2 hours and 40 mins flight.

Gujarat and Gujarati mind set

After landing in Gujarat, I was eager to speak to some hard core Gujarati in this topic and there I was talking to an off line version of WikiPedia.

Chetan, who is known as “Google” to his friends as you can ask him anything on any subject.

I did and I got more than what I bargained for.

14th February..

When all love birds were busy in pair on valentine’s day, there I was, planing to my next phase of journey from Ahmedabad to Sanand. I was told that it is a 60km drive from the City.

So we set our GPS and we found Sanand.

But it seems although Nokia MAP application knew about this place but yet to learn about the route to that place. So once again I turned to my friends and we took Mr. Off line google / WikiPedia.

There we were, Me and Chetan, finding our way towards Sanand while Rahul bhai, navigated through Gujarat roads.. However finally after about an hour of drive, we arrived at Sanand..

The Sanand, where TATA is now setting up their NANO plant, but once again, it is restricted there on clicking pictures, and we are stoped by security personals of TATA plant. We are asked not to click any pictures. I respect the privacy and didnt click any pictures of the plan from the construction site.

We also spoke with security guys over there, asked for permission but were not allowed to do so. So with respect to the said law, I didn’t click any from in site. I could only manage few glimpse of the plant from the near by roads while returning. I wondered as what was the problem in barring us to click picture of the Dream project of our entire nation ?

Anyway, the objective achieved. I must be the first blogger to do it, Singur to SANAND, mission accomplished. However, the part of Mamta to Modi is still pending.

Mamta to Modi, in terms of the opinion of people of Gujarat about TATA Nano.

I have spoken with few and still I am yet to view few places here and speak to few more people, hence only then I can provide an idea about the difference between my (as a native of Bengal) thoughts and the mind set of a Gujarati. So keep on reading..

To be Continue..