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.

Port Blair, Jan 04: Air India has confirmed the dates of operation of chartered flights on Port Blair-Chennai-Port Blair sector upto March, 2015. As per the schedule the services will be available on  17th January, 2015, 31st January, 2015, 7th February, 2015, 21st February, 2015, 7th March, 2015 and 21st March, 2015.

Reservation of tickets for above flights will start 10 days prior to departure of each flight. Accordingly, for the flight scheduled on 17th January, 2015 the reservation will start from 7th January, 2015. Passengers are requested to submit their requisition in the prescribed format available on website www.and.nic.in. Only one ticket will be issued per applicant. However, in case of family, a maximum of 4 tickets will be issued per application.

Reservation of Tickets: From Port Blair the passengers will be required to submit their application at the Ship Ticket Advance Reservation System (STARS) Counter, Directorate of Shipping Services, Phoenix Bay Jetty,  Port Blair between 9.00 AM to 4.00 PM on all working days for reservation of tickets for travel between Port Blair to Chennai. The reservation will close at 11.00 AM on the preceding day of departure of each flight.

From Chennai – The passengers will be required to submit their application to the office of the Assistant Director of Shipping Services, A&N Administration, No.5 Rajaji Salai, Opp. Custom House Chennai-1 between 9.00 AM to 4.00 PM on all working days for reservation of tickets for travel between Chennai to Port Blair. The reservation will close at 11.00 AM on the preceding day of departure of each flight.

Quota for Islanders and Non-Islanders:

Out of 144 seats, 101 seats are reserved for the islanders and employee of Central Govt./PSU/Defence personnel posted in A & N Islands and remaining 43 seats are reserved for non-Islanders. The unsold tickets in each category (Islanders/Non-Islanders) will be made open 72 hours prior to departure of flight for utilization by both Islanders and non-Islanders at the fare applicable to them.

Cost of Tickets: The ticket cost per passenger for one way between Chennai and Port Blair will Rs 5000 for Islanders on production of Islander card/      Local certificate and for employee of Central Govt./ PSUs/Defence personnel posted in A & N Islands on production of certificate issued by HoD/Head of office   –    Rs. 5000/- one way trip.

For Non-Islanders it will be  Rs.11600/- one way trip.

The reservation will be done on first come first serve basis by the respective reservation offices in Chennai and Port Blair. Fare will be collected from the applicants alongwith the application and a list will be prepared and sent to Air India Ltd. for issue of formal tickets.

Delivery of printed tickets:

The passengers can collect the printed tickets from the respective reservation office at Chennai/ Port Blair during office working hours from 3 days prior to departure of each flight or can collect the same from the representative of A & N Administration at the entrance of the airport at Port Blair/ Chennai 2 hrs before departure of each flight. Also the booking references i.e PNR / Ticket No will be communicated to the confirmed passengers through SMS.

Tickets for outlying areas: For outlying areas of Nicobar District and North & Middle Andaman District, the following quota of tickets has been allotted: DC, North & Middle Andaman:         10 seats from Chennai to Port Blair and 10 seats from Port Blair to Chennai

DC, Nicobar: 10 seats from Chennai to Port Blair and 10 seats from Port Blair to Chennai

The Islanders belonging to the Nicobar and N & M Andaman District may apply in the prescribed format to the respective Deputy Commissioner’s Office. The Deputy Commissioner of these 2 Districts will forward the names of the short listed 10 passengers to the Deputy Director (CA) 72 hrs. prior to departure of flight.

Port Blair, December 25: As part of observance of ‘Good Governance Week’ from 24th to 30th December 2014 and in continuation of the ‘Swatch Bharat’ initiative, a cleanliness drive was carried out by the staff of LG’s Secretariat outside the premises of Raj Niwas. Secretary to Lt Governor and all officers and staff of Raj Niwas participated in the cleanliness drive. Secretary to LG urged the staff to also conduct similar cleanliness drives in areas where they live and try to bring about community participation in such efforts.