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Thursday, Aug 10, 2006

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National

Images from Kolkata of yore

Antara Das

Chief Minister inaugurates photo archive at Writers' Building

KOLKATA: The old times are coming alive. Whether one is fascinated by pictures of old Kolkata just to savour the glimpse that it allows into a bygone age, or one wants to see photographs of the time General Gyap from Vietnam or Soviet Prime Minister Bulganin had come calling to the city, it is all there in the Photo Archive at Writers' Building, the seat of government in Kolkata.

The archive, inaugurated by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Wednesday, includes photographs of the visits of Presidents and Prime Ministers of India to the city, natural calamities, tourist spots such as Digha, the Sunderbans or the Dooars and their wildlife, the visits of important international dignitaries to the city.

There are 10 segments: archaeology, personalities, old newspapers, Kolkata, district profile, activities of government departments, natural calamities, tourism, wildlife and current events. Each segment has sub-segments too. The personalities segment has photographs of visits to the State by Presidents from Rajendra Prasad to A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and Prime Ministers from Jawaharlal Nehru to Manmohan Singh.

The process of modernisation is on. Out of the five lakh negatives and photographs, almost 1,000 have been digitised. Built at a cost of Rs. 9,03,670, the archive is under the Information and Cultural Department. The State Government plans to link the archive to its official website www.wbgov.com.

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