PIB sponsored Press Tour of Maharashtra
By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 2 Feb: The Press Information Bureau of Government of India has conducted tours of media persons from one state to the other under the Vikasit Bharat campaign of the Union Government. As part of the tour, some senior journalists from Uttarakhand were taken on a five- day tour of Maharashtra last month. The tour included interaction with beneficiaries of various government schemes, visits to some of the premier institutions of the country, and interaction with top officials leading the organisations and institutions. It also included a visit to Raj Bhawan in Mumbai, which is a historic place located at a site surrounded on three sides by the Arabian Sea, and an interaction with Governor of Maharashtra, Ramesh Bais.
The tour began with a two-day programme in Pune, followed by a day long visit to Lonavala, and then a two-day visit to Mumbai. Along with the team of journalists from Uttarakhand, the PIB team of Maharashtra was simultaneously also hosting a team of journalists from Odisha.
The host team of PIB in Maharashtra comprised ADG, PIB, Maharashtra, Smita Vats Sharma, Mahesh Iyenger (Pune), Jaydevi Pujari Swami, Nikita Joshi, Sriyanka Chattterjee, Harshal Akude and Udhhav Hingole, while the PIB officer from Dehradun, Anil Dutt Sharma, was the facilitator for the tour.
The two day tour of Pune mainly comprised visits to FTII (Film & Television Institute of India), Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation Offices and its Waste Management Plant, historical sites of Pune which included Shaniwar Wara, Lal Mahal and Dagduseth Halwai Ganesh Temple, etc.,
and a very important visit to National Institute of Virology. While the details of the visits to the municipal bodies of Maharashtra have been written about separately, this article covers visits to other places.
Lal Mahal- Where Shivaji spent his childhood
Pune, is a historic city and the karmabhoomi of the grand Maratha Empire. The media team was taken on a historic walk to several historic sites in Pune. These included Lal Mahal, where young Shivaji had spent his childhood. This building is reconstructed at the same location and holds a special place in the hearts of all admirers of Shivaji Maharaj. The Pune Municipal Corporation has undertaken redevelopment of the area under a Master Plan and it is becoming one of the major tourist attractions. The campus has many statues of Shivaji, Baal Shivaji and his mother Jijabai, and has several galleries depicting his life and values. This place was under the occupation of Muslim invaders for some time before it was reclaimed by the Marathas.
Film & Television Institute of India, Pune
FTII has produced some of the most well-known actors and directors in Bollywood. They include leading names such as Shatrughan Sinha, Jaya Bachchan, Danny Denzongpa, Mithun Chakravarty, Asrani, Om Puri, Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Subhash Ghai (who trained as an actor but became a leading director), Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Rajkumar Hirani. Incidentally, among the big names who have taught at the FTII also include the late Tom Alter, who hailed from Mussoorie.
We were informed that the FTII currently runs 11 courses and the disciplines include acting, direction, editing, cinematography and TV production. The media team was also taken to various studios including those for TV production.
National Institute of Virology, Pune
The National Institute of Virology is an ICMR institute of the Union Government which comes under the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and it is here that the famous anti-Covid vaccine, Covaxin, was developed. NIV is one of the leading collaborating laboratories of the World Health Organisation, which primarily conducts research in viruses that have potential to affect human health. Among its other achievements include first visualisation of the Hepatitis E virus, development of indigenous testing kits for various infections such as Covid, Dengue, Influenza, Chikangunia, Measles and Encephalitis, etc. The media team was informed about the role played by NIV during the Covid pandemic. Apart from the development of Covaxin, a large number of doctors and paramedical staff were trained at the Institute and campuses across the country regarding management and handling of Covid patients. The team was also shown several laboratories where work was underway on live samples of various viruses such as Corona. NIV has also developed mobile vans which can go to epidemic or pandemic affected areas for testing and handling patients. They are ultra modern and technically highly equipped mobile vans with mobile labs. The media team was also informed that, recently, NVI has established a Biosafety Level-4 laboratory dedicated to virus research. This is the first high tech laboratory in Asia. The media team interacted with top scientists at NIV Pune including Dr Baba Saheb Vishwanath Tandale and Dr N Sruti.
INS Shivaji, Lonavala
INS Shivaji is a Naval Station located in Lonavala between Mumbai and Pune. It is a premier training institute for naval engineers and technicians of the Indian Navy. It houses the Naval College of Engineering, which trains officers of the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard. It was commissioned on 15 February, 1945, as HMIS Shivaji. It is located close to the Bhushi Dam. It is located on an area covering 876 acres. The Indian Navy already operates the first damage control simulator, Akshat, at INS Shivaji to train its officers and sailors on damage control on a warship at sea. Indian Navy’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence (NBCD) School and Centre for Marine Engineering Technology are also based here. The media team was taken around the Indian Naval Museum, which is worth a visit for anyone interested in the history of the Indian Navy. The museum also houses parts of old naval ships like INS Virat and INS Vikrant. The training centres have live workshops and dead machines. The live workshops have functional machines for training of naval officers and engineers and have the capacity to generate electricity to power INS Shivaji Naval Station in case of power outages. An interesting component of the Institute is the NBCD School, which conducts training in nuclear, biological and chemical aspects, damage control and fire-fighting. It has a damage control simulator, Akshat. It is a facility for practical training in simulated damage control procedures on board the ship. The visit also included interaction with Commodore Mohit Goyal, who heads INS Shivaji at present.
Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust Authority (JNPT), Navi Mumbai
The media team on tour to Maharashtra also visited the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust Authority located in Navi Mumbai. It is a premier container handling port in India accounting for around 50 percent of the total containerised cargo volume, across the major ports of India. In recent years, JNPA has transformed from a bulk cargo terminal to the premier container port in the country and is ranked among the top thirty container ports in the world. It is connected to over 200 ports across the world. The Modi Government is rapidly working not only on enhancing the capacity of the port in view of increasing world trade from India but also has linked it to several railway corridors for faster cargo movement.
The interaction with the top JNPTA management included that with CGMs and GMs Niteen Borwankar, G Vaidyanathan and GK Das. The media team was informed that, currently, it takes around four hours for the trucks bringing in cargo to offload at the port and be free, whereas it used to take many hours before. This has led to reduced transport cost to exporters and importers and less damage to goods due to time saving. CGM Niteen Borwankar stated that many of the operations at JNPT have been handed over to top private companies of global level under PPP, which has increased the efficiency at the port and many of the operations have been automatised, thus streamlining the operations. Currently, JNPA operates five container terminals: The NhavaSheva Free Port Terminals (NSFT), the NhavaSheva International Container Terminal (NSICT), the Gateway Terminals India Pvt Ltd (GTIPL), NhavaSheva International Gateway Terminal (NSIGT) and the newly commissioned Bharat Mumbai Container Terminals Private Limited (BMCT). The Port also has a Coastal Berth to facilitate coastal cargo, a Shallow Water Berth for general cargo and another Liquid Cargo Terminal which is managed by the BPCL-IOCL consortium. The Fourth Container Terminal is being developed in two phases and is expected to be fully operational by April 2025 with quay length of 2,000 metres adding an annual capacity of 4.8 million TEUs.
National Museum of Indian Cinema (NMIC), Mumbai
The National Museum of Indian Cinema was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India in 2019 and it is one of the most interesting centres of information for anyone interested in films. It is operated by the Films Division of the Government of India. The Museum is housed in two buildings, the New Museum Building and the 19th century heritage building, Gulshan Mahal. The Museum showcases history of India Cinema and has ample artefacts, digital elements including kiosks, interactive digital screens, information based screen interfaces, etc. Items of great interest here include film properties and costumes, vintage film and editing equipment, posters, copies of important films, promotional leaflets, sound tracks, trailers, transparencies, old cinema magazines, statistics covering film making and distribution, etc. Separate sections are devoted to great filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray and also a section to Mahatma Gandhi. NMIC not only provides a store house of information to the lay person, but also helps film makers, students, enthusiasts and critics to know and evaluate the development of cinema as a medium of artistic expression. It also houses a realistic wax statue of Satyajit Ray and also a collection of some of very classic films and a theatre to project the films.
It has been visited by many leading Bollywood personalities and appreciated by them.
Kaivalyadham in Lonavala
Kaivalyadham is a Yoga Centre located in Lonavala in Maharashtra. The media team was taken on a round of this place which is doing great research work in linking Yoga and Ayurveda with Science. The efficacy of Yoga, naturopathy and Ayurveda is being proven through modern science here. The Centre not only offers long and medium term courses in Yoga and naturopathy, which attract a large number of UG and PG students from across the world, but also offers treatment for various ailments. The courses on offer to UG and PG students are affiliated with a Pune based university. The media team also underwent a Yoga session during its stay there.
