Procam International, promoters of the Tata Steel Kolkata 25K, outlined arrangements that are in place for Sunday, 15^th December including medical facilities, new route and other facilities for the benefit of the participants.

Present on the occasion were Kamlesh Chatterjee, VP, West Bengal Athletic Association; P.N. Sankaran – Director Operations; Hugh Jones, Race Director; Medical Director- Dr Sanjukta Dutta, Head of Emergency-Forti; Srikanth Sola, Co-founder, CEO, Devic Earth; Prashant Saha, Regional Director, Procam International; Vivek Singh, Jt. MD, Procam International.

Vivek Singh, Jt. MD, Procam International said at the Press conference: “The race has grown bigger and stronger with every edition. It is amazing how the city of jot embraced the distance running in the last five years rapidly. 40 different kinds of registered running related events in and around Kolkata are happening which is phenomenal. Come the race day 15,000-plus warriors will be at the starting line to embrace the magic of running.”

RACE DAY TIMINGS

The Tata Steel Kolkata will be telecast live on Star Sports 2& Star Sports 2 HD from 6:00 am to 9:30 am. The event will also be streamed live on Hotstar.

Race timing’s as below :

The new route introduced for the 25K and 10K is for the benefit of all participants and citizens of Kolkata. One of the most important aspect of the route-is that, it is a single way route. This will drastically help reduce traffic congestion and will not disturb the citizens. The elite athletes will also get a clear, clean route.

The course for the only 25km World Athletics silver label race runs through iconic landmarks of the city including – Park street, Birla Mandir, Eden Gardens, Victoria Memorial, Sardar Sarovar Stadium among others.

“It’s lovely to be here as always. We’ve made some dramatic changes to the course and I am very happy with the new route as it’s lot more greener,” said Hugh Jones, Race Director. 

New route: Holding Area (Rangers Ground) – Western Flank of Red Road in front of Md. SportingGround – Red Road (Western flank) –Khidderpore Road (Northern flank) – Right turn on Hastings Crossing – St. Georges Gate Road (Western Flank)  – Strand Road (Western Flank) – Right turn – Kingsway (Southern flank) – R R Avenue (Southern flank) – Mayo Road – Right turn – J L Nehru Road (Western flank) – Left turn near Outram Road crossing – Park Street (Southern flank) – Right on Park Circus 7 Point Crossing –  Syed Amir Ali Avenue (Western flank) – Ashutosh Chowdary Avenue (Western flank) – Gariahat Flyover (Western flank) – Right turn on Golpark –  Southern Avenue (Southern flank)) – Right turn – S P Mukherjee Road (Western flank) – Hazra Crossing – Left turn – Hazra Road – Kalighat Bridge –  Judges Court Road – Right turn –  Hasting Park Road – Right turn – Belvedere Road – Bhawani Bhawan –Belvedere Road – Cross National Library – Right turn – Alipore Road (Western flank) – Cross Alipore Zoo – Zeerut Bridge – Left turn – AJC Bose Road – Hastings Crossing – Right Turn – Khidderpore Road (Southern flank) – Right Turn – Lovers Lane (foul) – Hospital Road (Western flank) – U Turn before A.J.C. Bose Road/DL

RACE DAY ARRANGEMENTS

Runners are TSK25’s biggest stakeholders and Procam will continue deploying initiatives towards making race day a memorable for all participants. Measures have been taken in the following areas – Medical Facilities, Anti-pollution measures, and becoming a100% waste managed event.

Medical Arrangements by Fortis

• Trained medical personnel present at all stations to deal with any kind of emergencies
• 40 nurses and 50 doctors on call
• 7 medical stations along the route
• 8 ambulances on the route
• 8 paramedics on Bikes along the race route to ensure help is made available at all times.
• Spotter placed every 100m during the last 2 km of the race to identify participants who need medical attention.

Anti-Pollution Measures

The initiatives undertaken for the last few years at the Tata Steel Kolkata 25K have proved their efficacy and the implementations have been continued this year.

• Patented ecologically safe technology to be used: Low power-pulsedWifi waves to be concentrated over the course to catalyse clearance of air pollutants primarily through dry deposition.
• Use of Dustron PC Compound which when mixed with natural water & sprayed at dust affected area, it combines with the settled dust on any surface making it heavy and impossible to rise into the air suppressing pollution to remarkable levels. We are spraying  5lac ltr of chemically infused water.
• Spraying of water along the course pre the race will help settle the dust and the air quality improve across the treated area. The activity is done 4-6 hrs prior the race with lasting effects.

Pure Skies for clean air – simple and effective 

Devic Earth’s Pure Skies technology uses pulsed Wi-Fi to safely and effectively reduce air pollution over large areas, typically by 50-60% outdoors. Unlike ordinary Wi-Fi which broadcasts continuously to transmit data, Pure Skies transmits in the Wi-Fi range (2.4 GHz) in a very specific pulsed manner. This takes advantage of what scientists call the “dielectric effect”, which means that positive and negative charges in pollution particles are shifted in opposite directions – like a magnet. The net effect is, accelerated natural clearance of these very small pollutant particles – PM10 and PM2.5 – by causing them to agglomerate and settle out of the air. In nature, this agglomeration and settling out occurs all the time and is called “dry deposition”.

A typical Pure Skies system consists of one or more base stations and a up to a half dozen extender units, depending on the area to be covered – up to 2 km radius in cities like Delhi. For TSK25Kfour such systems and seven repeaters have been installed since 9^th December and are monitoring the air quality.

With a modest electricity consumption (30W), the units work silently without the need for any further human intervention, filters or fans. The safety profile is like Wi-Fi.

Ambient Air Quality Monitoring – Oizom’sDustroid™ 

Oizom Instruments Pvt. Ltd., an Ahmedabad based environmental monitoring solutions provider, is supporting Devic Earth with real time air quality monitoring data to optimize the Pure Skies systems and effectively mitigate the air pollution across the course.

Eco-Stride, a 100% waste Managed Race

Procam International’s distance running events are 100% waste managed events, with a focus on managing waste through the 6R PRINCIPAL – RETHINK, REFUSE, REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE & REPLACE.

For the last of couple of years, Procam has been closely working with HasiruDala Innovations, a social enterprise- focused on creating better livelihoods for waste pickers who are advising different eco-friendly alternatives and ensure efficient waste management. HasiruDala Innovations will be assisted by local partners Disha (Society for Direct Initiative for Social and Health Action) in executing the housekeeping and waste management services.

INITIATIVES INCLUDE:

• Online registrations, a digital handbook for participants andemail communications with participants to help reduce paper consumption
• Reusable cloth bags for bibs, bibs distributed *without*plastic cover & paper bags used for event kitting and cloth bags for refreshment distribution. Participants will also be encouraged to return the plastic covers of the race day event tees in designated bins to ensure no plastic from the event enters the city waste stream
• Training of waste handlers & supervisors on effective operations (collection of waste wherelittered, ensure segregation)
• Dry & Wet Waste segregated at the source of generation ie: the event expo,course, holding area, start/finish, event marquees, media centre among others
  • All areas are manned by tagged bins for collection of dry and wet
  • On Race Day at the Venue – there are Waste kiosk (Large centralized waste disposal & collection stations), that will have separate bins – DRY for paper, tetra packs etc, PLASTIC for PET bottles, food containers and WET for food waste.
  • Participants will be encouraged to dispose garbage in designated bins through various announcements and waste pickers / volunteers.
• Enhanced infrastructure for waste management: 160 waste handlers onthe route, 71 waste handlers on venue.  HasiruDala Innovations, will ensure the fast-track last mile disposal of waste to the appropriate destinations to ensure no waste goes to landfill
• Organic waste: composted at an organic composting facility managed by Disha at Dhulgargh Truck Terminal, Howrah  
• Pet bottles will be sent back to Bisleri under EPR (extended producer responsibility) and other plastics will be shredded to flakes andupcycled to backpacks, raincoats, umbrella’s, etc
• Waste paper and cardboard will be recycled to fresh new paper,files, craft paper etc.
• Flex management: DISHA will cut the flex from frames and making them into sheets thatwill be sent to flood affected areas like Sundarban, Kakdwip and Sagar island. The large sheets will be used for roofing, medium size sheets will be given to street vendors on which they may spread their wares, the smaller sheets will be used to make shopping bags.

OTHER FACILITIES ON-COURSE & IN-STADIA

• 15 Bisleri water stations along the course + post finish
• 3 Fast&Up Energy Stations along the course + post finish
• 5 Orange and salt stations
• 5 Ice-stations

This TSK 2019, Water Stations will be managed by Behala Running Squad, UniRunners Kolkata, Salt Lake Runners, Cyruns and Jayanagar Jaguars. The Energy Stations will be managed by Striders, Happy Feet Runners, Crazy Runners, South Kolkata Runners and North Kolkata Runners. The role of these runners groups is also to motivate the runners to achieve their goals.

Breakfast will be served for all participants post finish