Kolkata Beautification Projects

[niljee]

Originally Posted by studdmanster

actually that wont help...Indians by nature are "nature lovers" (jhari k peeche wala)...

Incidentally, there's a unisex pay n use toilet, just beside this jhari, but still people prefer to do it in public....

I have seen people relieving themselves on the very wall of the pay toilet under Dhakuria bridge.

[NiladriG]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/17565302.cms

Funds are in place, but the beautification of Vivekananda Park has still hit a dead end, thanks to rampant encroachment in the form of shanties inside and hawkers outside the park. The Kolkata Improvement Trust (KIT), the custodian of the park, is now desparately looking for a solution to continue with its beautification drive. A TOI visit to the park on Monday revealed that work on the Lake Road side of the park, where hawkers were found doing a brisk business, has been stalled altogether.

Since the inception of the park, the KIT has been struggling to keep encroachers at bay. After a couple of military camps - set up inside the park during World War-II - were withdrawn in 1947, a group of homeless refugees grabbed a portion of the ground. This gave birth to shanties inside the park. The problem snowballed after those living on pavements or adjacent slums started flocking into the park. As many as 200 people settled inside the park from early 50s to early 80s. The population steadily grew in past two decades bringing the number to 300 living inside ground.

If the problem of encroachment inside the park swelled slowly but steadily, the situation outside changed drastically in last few years. From being a no-hawker zone even 10 years ago, the pavement on Lake Road has now become home to a number of hawkers. Glaring example of an encroachment: A three storeyed building constructed in the park in 1990. The building has been handed over to the KMC conservancy department to serve the area.

In all these years, the government did try to evict the encroachers and beautify the park twice. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) had planned the beautification twice in the past, once in early 90s and again in 2002, but all plans fell flat on both occasions.

This time, however, the state urban development department has undertaken a beautification project but the progress has been very slow. In three months, only about 50% of the fencing has been complete. The government is now waiting for the encroachers to vacate the place to beautify the interior of the park.

State urban development minister Firhad Hakim has requested Trinamool Congress councillor Baiswanor Chatterjee to help the government evict the encroachers. Chatterjee told TOI that he had been trying hard to persuade the settlers. Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, on the other hand, was keen to take over the park from the KIT and start beautification on KMC's behalf.

"Despite the presence of such a large park near my home, I have nowhere to go for my morning walk. There can't be any beautification unless encroachers are removed," said local resident Rupali Basu, a retired schoolteacher.

Debarati Mukherjee, an employee of Indigo Airlines, echoed: "Encroachment inside the park has given rise to law and order problems. We no longer feel safe when we go to the park. The government has to do something to restore confidence of the local residents."

Niloy De, banker and a local resident: The government should first ensure that encroachment is removed. Then we can talk about the plans for beautification. Mere fencing of the park won't attract the visitors. The police need to patrol the park round the clock to discourage unruly people to takeover the park.

[studdmanster]

Originally Posted by niljee

I have seen people relieving themselves on the very wall of the pay toilet under Dhakuria bridge.

whenever and whatever comes for free, we Indians are more than happy to use it.....

[NiladriG]

Originally Posted by studdmanster

whenever and whatever comes for free, we Indians are more than happy to use it.....

But the attitude has to change with time, you cannot have city beautification going on with people dirtying around side by side. The only thing these people understand are gaali/fine or both. Their attitude is such that they will not spend Re.1 but will piss in open. Few days back I saw a person pissing within the AIIMS campus, the security guard blasted him like anything.

[anan355]

Howrah municipality has resolved to steer clear of the controversial trident lights that have put the Kolkata Municipal Corporation in a spot. The municipality has decided to decorate its streets with solar lights instead. Howrah has received a shot in the arm by being chosen as the country's next Solar City by the ministry of renewable energy.

Buoyed by the newfound status, the municipality has decided not to sanction any new building that fails to install solar system.

Howrah mayor Mamata Jaiswal said on Monday, "We have decided not to allow any new building that does not incorporate solar system in its plan. We are the first municipality in the state to issue such a notification." She added, "We are not interested in trident lights and will instead promote renewable energy both on the streets and inside buildings. This will reduce electricity cost and help us make Howrah less polluted."

The norms, as spelt out in the notification, say that lights, fans and other appliances will be allowed to run by electricity, but not water heaters. "We shall set up teams to monitor the new buildings, especially highrises and commercial and residential complexes, to check if they have installed the solar system in accordance with the building plans submitted by them to the municipality," said Jaiswal.

The mayor said camps will be organized to create awareness on renewable energy and the ministry had already sanctioned Rs 12 lakh for the purpose.

According to instructions from the ministry, the municipality has assigned Iclei South Asia to create a master plan for helping Howrah become a Solar City. It will get Rs 8 lakh from the ministry for the master plan for which organisations like Besu would be roped in for consultancy. The master plan will be submitted by May 31, 2013, said Jaiswal.


Source

[Suncity]

After seeing the piles of garbage along VIP road yesterday, noticed huge piles of garbage in front of Apollo Hospital today right on EMBP. Poverty doesn't mean the city has to be unclean. And that too the front of a major hospital.

Along Broadway, many of the trident lamps are not even visible because of the trees. It's like money has been spent without too much thought.

The sorriest sight was one trident lamp on VIP road near lake town. It was tilted (did someone hit it?) and in a puddle of mud and dead leaves.

Garbage clean up along main roads, repairing footpaths, removing encroachments have to be done on war footing if the beautification process has to be done beyond cosmetic touches.

There seems no poriborton on this front - at least in the areas I visited and they are not at all down market areas.

Saw so many cows at one of the the entrances of Salt Lake. Looks like someone is running a major goshala on the roads. Stray dogs are a menace. No one seems to be bothered though. I guess after four days, one becomes oblivious to these things.

[AbhishekDatta]

for dogs and cows someone should make more use of Ms. Debasree Roy

[niljee]

Originally Posted by AbhishekDatta

for dogs and cows someone should make more use of Ms. Debasree Roy

She had planned a hospital and shelter for the stray dogs in Dhapa. Don't know what happened to that. But, after being bitten by a rabid dog recently I dont think she will be interested anymore with such initiatives. Sometime back Calcutta Corporation advertised a number for us to call and report the menace of stray dogs in the localities. I called up that number and wanted to report specifically about our locality. A guy on the other end said that it not such an easy process to report such things and I need to write up to some directors of public health and then follow it up at the Writers building.

[soumyajyoti]

Originally Posted by Suncity

After seeing the piles of garbage along VIP road yesterday, noticed huge piles of garbage in front of Apollo Hospital today right on EMBP. Poverty doesn't mean the city has to be unclean. And that too the front of a major hospital.

Along Broadway, many of the trident lamps are not even visible because of the trees. It's like money has been spent without too much thought.

The sorriest sight was one trident lamp on VIP road near lake town. It was tilted (did someone hit it?) and in a puddle of mud and dead leaves.

Garbage clean up along main roads, repairing footpaths, removing encroachments have to be done on war footing if the beautification process has to be done beyond cosmetic touches.

There seems no poriborton on this front - at least in the areas I visited and they are not at all down market areas.

Saw so many cows at one of the the entrances of Salt Lake. Looks like someone is running a major goshala on the roads. Stray dogs are a menace. No one seems to be bothered though. I guess after four days, one becomes oblivious to these things.

Absolutely!!!
And the same is what I feel even for the hawker thing. I personally would not have any problems against hawkers if they keep things clean. Today morning in front of La Marts school opposite HHI, I saw some new hawkers have come up (pretoria street crossing). They were merrily washing utensils on the footpath. And then there was a barber sitting beside him with a chair. He might be charging a premium because the roadside view that customer would b e getting. There was hair which has been recently trimmed lying on the footpath.

It felt so disgusting.

[anan355]

Is there any dog sterilization program that is undertaken in Kolkata for stray dogs?
I have never heard of any.

[niljee]

Originally Posted by anan355

Is there any dog sterilization program that is undertaken in Kolkata for stray dogs?
I have never heard of any.

There is a program and salaried people for that too...but we all can see the result Read in the newspaper recently that the Corporation has bought a machine which can sterilize 30 dogs a day...it remains to be seen if the machine get used at all or not.

[vaidya]

Dear Frenz, I wish to start a new thread for Rabindra Sarovar Lakes Beautification. Have noticed lot of changes since the last couple of years. Can anyone guide me how to open or start a new thread?

[AbhishekDatta]

it would be better if you add the updates/photos etc here in this thread itself...we are tracking such developments in this thread itself..no need to create a new one

[Suncity]

The Bidhan Nagar Municipality has successfully turned Salt Lake into a mega garbage dump, zoo [dogs, cows, pigs, hens etc] and footpath capture gold mine. Must be one of the most incompetent local admin bodies in the country. Of course the citizens (floating and resident) don't seem to be too bothered. All walls are game for becoming urinals. Broken bricks, broken pavements, pot holed roads (or no road) are common. No one follows any road rules. And this is a wealthy town which has not paid taxes for a long time. Hopefully it will not become like Burrabazar which has lots of money but is mega dump on the face of the earth.

I had the bad luck of visiting BSNL office and I have to make a few more visits for something simple that cannot be solved in one hour but will take seven days. The BSNL buildings look like they will fall down anytime. The main office stank of pee. The outside has all been captured by vendors with garbage all around. I am sure most of the government (State or Central) are in same situation. The areas in front of the other office blocks is same. When a government (state and central) cannot run a office building properly, how will they run a state or country? How are these people supposed to keep a city beautiful and clean when they have no sense of cleanliness?

[Suncity]

Some beautification pics

1


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2


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3 The Municipal building has been painted blue and whote



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4. the stretch in front of the municipality looks decent



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5 - hopefully all avenues will become like this within a year.



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[studdmanster]

@sun: FD block seems to get a makeover it seems...infact enire SL...esp, broadway...

[arijeetb]

Originally Posted by studdmanster

@sun: FD block seems to get a makeover it seems...infact enire SL...esp, broadway...

well, only Broadway and blocks around it like FD ( since it is where the municipality is) look good. In fact Broadway looked good before makeover also. While on the one hand paver blocks are being put in most of the medians people now dump their garbage on the under construction medians Civic sense is probably poorest in this part of the country

[NiladriG]

Originally Posted by Suncity

I had the bad luck of visiting BSNL office and I have to make a few more visits for something simple that cannot be solved in one hour but will take seven days. The BSNL buildings look like they will fall down anytime. The main office stank of pee. The outside has all been captured by vendors with garbage all around. I am sure most of the government (State or Central) are in same situation. The areas in front of the other office blocks is same. When a government (state and central) cannot run a office building properly, how will they run a state or country? How are these people supposed to keep a city beautiful and clean when they have no sense of cleanliness?

I had really bad experience with BSNL. They have pathetic work culture, shoddy behaviour and no sense of providing service. I made the mistake of applying for broadband to BSNL. They couldn't start in more than a month. I cancelled the internet. These people are truly horrible and deserve to be in stone age.

[CalcuttaChromosome]

Originally Posted by NiladriG

I had really bad experience with BSNL. They have pathetic work culture, shoddy behaviour and no sense of providing service. I made the mistake of applying for broadband to BSNL. They couldn't start in more than a month. I cancelled the internet. These people are truly horrible and deserve to be in stone age.

I just cancelled it last month after using for 5 years and moved to Airtel 3G. Now the funny part is when I went to submit an application to discontinue the services, the official asked me what is the unlimited alternative plan u are applying for. I said Airtel 3G, unlimited plan with upto 5GB its 3G speed. He said, is it? But Airtel doesn't have as good as service as BSNL has and they can cheat u later on with bills.

I suppressed my laughter quite hard after hearing the 1st argument that he placed.......

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by studdmanster

@sun: FD block seems to get a makeover it seems...infact enire SL...esp, broadway...

I think only the municipal side looks ok. I don't see any dramatic positive change in FD block. The stray dogs have increased in numbers, the garbage has increased. The stupid folks also burn the leaves in the morning. There are now more vendors who have captured footpaths with blessings of the politicians. And as ArijeetB mentioned the uncivic minded population has now found a new place to dump garbage - the medians. The more "cosmopolitan" or "Indian" Salt Lake has become, the dirtier and more lawless it has become. Wealth and big degrees in India often do NOT equate to more cultured and civic minded.

I have not seen Salt Lake in such a shocking state before. Maybe the municipality has no money as for long no one paid taxes. Just relaying medians and painting blue and white along with hundreds of trident lamps will not beautify the city as long as men pee on every available wall, stray dogs run around freely and hawkers and their customers dirty the streets.