Two men will jump from the roof of The 42 in Chowringhee, the tallest building in Kolkata, on Tuesday afternoon.
A couple of seconds into the jump, they will have to deploy their parachutes. Else, they will crash 850ft below on the bustling Chowringhee Road.
With the chute, they will take just over a minute to descend on a patch of the Maidan.
The jump by the two retired soldiers is part of a promotional campaign in the runup to the Durand Cup, a football tournament organised by the army.
Group Captain Kamal Singh Oberh (retd) and Lt Col Satyendra Verma (retd) are among India’s leading BASE jumpers.
BASE jumping is an extreme adventure sport that sees athletes jump off a fixed structure. BASE is an anacronym for building, antenna, span (usually referring to bridges) and the Earth (vertical mountain cliffs) — the four types of fixed objects athletes leap from.'
BASE jumping is similar to skydiving in the sense that in both, jumpers use a parachute to arrest their fall. But unlike usual skydivers, BASE jumpers do not use an aircraft.
A view of the city from the roof of The 42, where the two soldiers will jump from on Tuesday. Sanat Kr Sinha
Skydiving typically takes place at higher altitudes. BASE jumping occurs closer to the ground and often in proximity to structures, which gives athletes less time to react to shifting conditions or equipment failure.
“Kolkata has not seen something like this before. I have fond memories of this city and am looking forward to Tuesday’s jump,” Oberh told Metro on Saturday afternoon at the roof of The 42, overseeing the preparations.
A group of men in army uniforms was busy setting up a temporary structure that would jut out from the roof. The structure is where the two will jump off on Tuesday.
The roof of The 42, the 65-storeyed structure, offers a bird’s eye view of the city if there was ever one. As the Hooghly snakes along, the city’s iconic structures like the Victoria Memorial, St Paul’s Cathedral and Eden Gardens look like miniature versions of their original self. The cars on the road below look like matchboxes.
Oberh, commissioned in the Indian Air Force in 1993, holds several Indian records as a skydiver. He has dived over both the earth’s extremities, the North Pole and Antarctica.
Since his first in 2005, he has had over 150 BASE jumps to his credit. He has jumped from different structures across four countries, Malaysia, Switzerland, Brazil and India.
Oberh remembers the Maidan of 1996, hosting the silver jubilee of the Liberation War.
I was a young flying officer. I vividly remember being part of the celebrations,” he said.
Verma began with skydiving in 1993 and then transitioned to BASE jumping in 2009 with his first jump from KL Tower in Malaysia. Since then, he has BASE jumped from all four platforms, in India and abroad.
Verma, who has never lived in Kolkata, was in awe of the lush green of the Maidan.
“Usually, when we jump off a building, we land on the road below. But here, the Maidan offers the perfect landing spot,” he said.
However, there is no guarantee that the two will land on the designated spot — a slice of the Brigade Parade Ground on the northeast corner of the musical fountain — on Tuesday.
The landing spot on the Maidan is around 1,000ft from the base of The 42.
The two would use the chutes to move forward instead of going straight down. But the leap and how the parachute operates depend on the direction and speed of the wind. “In the worst-case scenario, we might have to land on the road. We will see,” said Oberh.
The traffic on the road will be regulated accordingly on Tuesday.
An elaborate programme — where the leap is the main attraction — is scheduled for Tuesday. The programme is slated to start at 2.30pm and is expected to last an hour.
“The timing of the jump will be decided according to the wind direction and other conditions,” an organiser said.
Established in 1888, the Durand Cup is Asia’s oldest football tournament. It is organised by the Indian Armed Forces, in association with the Bengal government.
After a 14-city tour, the trophies will finally arrive in Kolkata on Tuesday.
“A ceremony to mark the occasion has been organised by the Indian Army at the Brigade Parade Ground, where the trophies will be received and ‘flagged-in’ jointly by Aroop Biswas, Bengal’s sports minister and Lt. Gen. R.P. Kalita, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Command,” the organisers said.
A slice of the Maidan is being dressed up for the programme, which is open to all.
“Sport is all about challenging human limits of perseverance, fulfilling desires and stretching yourself beyond the boundaries. BASE jumping embodies all such characteristics. It has never been attempted or seen in the city before and the idea is to capture the imagination of the city’s residents, to bring joy to them and to announce that the Durand is back. What better way than to do it from the city’s highest point,” said an army spokesperson.
The tournament starts at the Salt Lake Stadium on August 3.