New Town Kolkata

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by Souvik_N

In yet another salvo to railway minister Mamata Banerjee Read more: Repeal railway acquisition law: Deb - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...#ixzz18ARi1GHU

The videos of Mr Gautam Deb countering Miss Mamata's charges about Rajarhat. There are six parts. It is kind of interesting with him showing Miss Mamata's allegations at some meeting and then presenting his view point.

http://www.youtube.com/user/sayakdeb

[Suncity]

from the videos:

Land allotted to various India Government Organizations

Airforce Naval Housing Board
Allahabad Bank
Army Welfeare Education Society
Border Security Force
Bharat Petroleum
Central Industrial Security Force
Central Reserve Police Force
Calcutta Telephones (BSNL)
Central Forensic Laboratory
Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute
Coal India
Damodar Valley Corporation
Income Tax Appellate Tribunal
Indian Oil
Indian Railway Welfare Organization
Indian Space Research Organization
Jute Manufacturing Development Council
NBCC
Narcotics Control Bureau
ONGC
Ordnance Factory
Power Grid Corporation
RITES
Atomic Energy Commission

Land to be allotted

Ministry of Textiles
Punjab National Bank
Indian Bank
Home Ministry
Indian Overseas Bank
Rashtriya Ispat Nigam
Food Corporation of India
RITES (needs more land)
National Institute of Orthopaedically Handicapped
Ferroscrap Nigam Limited
NPCC (not clear)

[studdmanster]

add IRCON
out of which, only IRCON, IRWO, NBCC, and naval board flats are ready!
RITES land is near Infospace!
Btw, what in that glass kept beside gautam deb?

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by studdmanster

Btw, what in that glass kept beside gautam deb?

It keeps him "cool" probably.

[studdmanster]

Maal na appy????

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by studdmanster

Maal na appy????

Journalist ra jaanbe.

[niljee]

Besu gets 11 acres at Rajarhat for second campus
TNN, Dec 18, 2010, 04.28am IST

KOLKATA: The long wait is finally over. Bengal Engineering and Science University (Besu) has received 11 acre at Rajarhat from Hidco. Now, it is time to plan and design courses and departments which will come up on its second campus.

To begin with, Besu will establish an advanced medical and environment research unit as well as an incubation centre based on green building technologies. However, the university has asked for another 11 acres in New Town.

Besu vice-chancellor, Ajay Kumar Roy, said they received land from Hidco last month. "We need another plot equal in area and have requested Hidco for the same. Our plan is to set up an advanced centre where research work on medical and environment issues will be conducted," Roy said, adding, "we plan to carry out studies on molecular biology, biotechnology, cancer biology, medical instrumentation, medical imaging and early diagnostics."

Besu also plans to start

biomechanics and prosthesis design research, while collaborating with leading medical institutes and hospitals in the country for the same.

"We shall emphasise on developing oral medicine. Oral stem cell development work will also continue. A lot of neurological problems can be resolved with research in this area. With the help of dental experts in Kolkata and dental colleges, medical science will take a leap forward through research," said Ray.

Energy, mainly concerning solar photovoltaic, biomass and solar thermal research, will be the focus of the institute on the new campus. "The government has approved a green incubation centre in which green entrepreneurship cell will function. Students have already started projects on paper recycling, waste vegetable recycling and computer recycling. The green incubation centre will function on the existing Besu campus and will later be shifted to the Rajarhat campus," Ray pointed out.

In the case of nanotechnology, nano material will be developed and a research centre instituted. Nano biomaterial, holding the key to revolutionary healthcare advances, will reportedly be a major focus.

The faculty guesthouses of Besu will also be shifted to Rajarhat. "We want the research centres to function from our Rajarhat campus. Also, collaboration with industry and eminent hospitals will be much easier from there," said Ray.

[studdmanster]

...i guess this plot will not endup like the fate of IIT KGP's plot!!

[studdmanster]

Originally Posted by Suncity

Journalist ra jaanbe.

[ayan92]

Originally Posted by studdmanster

...i guess this plot will not endup like the fate of IIT KGP's plot!!

so r u sure IITkgp isnt coming to newtown? if so, its gonna be very bad

if land could be allotted to besu, why not iit?

[studdmanster]

Had i said that IIT kgp's not coming to r'haat? Infact 3yrs ago the land has been alloted to IIT and its also be earmarked!...but the villagers near the plot are having itches at the wrong place!...there was a path that connected the villages. Villagers cant waste their energy in detouring the path, so they are not allowing to put up boundary wall in that area, and tl that time WBHIDCO will not handover the land to IIT!

[studdmanster]

X-posted from cityscapes

On a foggy and chilled late morning, view of R'haat (this year for a change its very foggy at areas in SL, R'haat and bypass, compared to the city!)
cc: Shaun

[studdmanster]

again a x-post

Originally Posted by studdmanster

One More, this time Skyline!(no idea about the appartments!)
cc: Shaun

[avishar]

BENGAL’S ‘SHOWPIECE TOWNSHIP’ IS ALL SHOW AND MORE PAIN

What went wrong? Why did the New Town of promise fail to deliver? What lies ahead? TOI takes a trip down the dream destination that turned into a nightmare.

Seven to eight years ago, it was on everyone’s lips. Everyone wanted to own a home here. It was touted as the great success story of Brand Bengal, then the biggest ever urban township project in the country. Today, Rajarhat New Town is an island of darkness where few dare to tread.
What went wrong? Why did New Town turn into a ghost town for years? And why is it still struggling to find enough takers, both among investors and house hunters? Things are so bad that entire complexes are lying empty. A few run solely on generators. And some houses live by candles once darkness falls.
It began with so much promise. Picturesque housing complexes in idyllic
surroundings away from the madding crowd and killing pollution. Sprawling malls, giant office buildings, smooth roads and efficient civic amenities. The 8,773-acre showpiece township was to be Kolkata’s Gurgaon and offer what the crowded, unplanned city never could. Somewhere down the line, the dream turned into a nightmare.
Basic amenities like water supply and power remain irregular in large parts of Action Area-II and III where many housing complexes are coming up. Several arterial roads remain unfinished, leading to nowhere. There is no transport system worth the name. Travelling to and from here is an ordeal. It does not have a pin code. Or a police station.
Slow Torture
For residents who moved in here even as the township was taking shape, it’s been a slow and painful torture. The promised development has yet to come.
New Town is going to be more than thrice the size of Salt Lake and have a population of about 15 lakh by 2015. The government claims it will be a township the country has never seen. But if the present state of New Town is any indication, the picture is not all that encouraging.
There are only about 1-2 lakh residents in New Town now, mainly in Action Area-I (Animikha, East Enclave, Balaka, Greenwood Park, Bengal DCL housing estates) and four complexes in the vicinity of City Centre-II in Action Area-II. Tens of thousands others who have booked their flats are yet to move in.
The reason: life is simply too hard in New Town.
The general complaint is that Hidco has failed to provide civic amenities in a proper and systematic manner. “We may be living in what the authorities call a showpiece township, but we are still dependent on Salt Lake for our daily living,” is the common refrain.
Whether it’s the water that is a murky red in some areas, or the fact there is no hospital, or that everyone — from vegetable vendors to taxi drivers — would fleece you if you live there.
“Hidco is more interested in setting up malls than improving basic amenities. I don’t think things will improve a lot in the next 10 years,” said a resident of Bengal DCL complex. Till a year ago, people in Action Area-I would begin their day by staring desperately at the taps, for the thin trickle of iron-laced water that would come and vanish before you knew it. Now, there is more water, and more iron as well.
“We spend a lot of money and time on cleaning our water lines, taps, bathroom tiles and the kitchen. Everything turns a rusty red. It’s a nuisance,” said a resident of Animikha.
Water supply is erratic. Taps dry up completely, often for days on end in summer. Residents have accepted the fact that they will have to buy water. Every day begins with the rush to buy packaged water.
Amenities? None
The New Town Development Authority was set up three years ago to act as the local municipality but it is yet to start functioning properly. “What is the authority doing? We are supposed to be living in the country’s best township, but it is like living under a panchayat administration,” fumed an elderly resident.
There are no bus sheds or public toilets and virtually no transport barring the two extreme ends of the township.
Rajarhat has no hospital or healthcare centre. A few medicine shops have opened but in emergencies, residents have no option but to rush to Salt Lake. If you don’t own a car, god help you, because even in the best of times, it’s hard to find a taxi. Also, no cabby wants to come here. “Pay up 300, a taxiwallah told me at Howrah station. It’s barely 11km to my home. I face this every time but I have no choice but to pay up,” said techie Sanjay Sarangi.
Public transport is non-existent. “There are no buses to reach Howrah, Sealdah or Esplanade,” said Amalendu Bhattacharya, a senior resident. “Without a car or twowheeler of your own, life comes to a complete standstill here. And if you have a puncture along the way, even god cannot help you,” said another resident.
Even after so many years, Rajarhat is without a proper traffic management system. With more offices coming up, more vehicles are entering the township. “They often drive recklessly in the absence of a proper signalling system,” said Soumyajit Mukherjee, another local. “Every evening, schoolboys are a terror. They jump on their dad’s bikes and cars and drive wildly because there are no policemen to check them,” said Ranjan Garg, a techie who travels to New Town every day.
An unfinished sewerage and drainage system creates waterlogging every season. If 15 lakh people do move into New Town by 2015, it would be a complete disaster. The township will be stinking to hell.
Already, there are signs of the drainage system cracking under pressure. Locals say when these residential housings came up, the authorities did not bother to rectify the unevenness of the landscape. Several residential towers came up on lowland, leading to severe waterlogging in monsoon.
There are no parks or gardens, apart from the green patches inside housing complexes. Many fear that with high-rises cropping up everywhere, New Town will become another concrete jungle.
What does Hidco have to say on all this? “Initially, problems will occur. New Town has been recognized by the Centre as one of the eight satellite townships of the country and in the near future, everybody will see how it unfolds before them,” housing minister and Hidco chairman Gautam Deb said.
But then, that’s a promise being touted for a decade.

[avishar]

This is downright criminal on HIDCO's part.First they spend peanuts on acquiring land from farmers and then they sell it to realtors for exorbitant rates and make tons of money and after that there is no development of infrastructure.


Somehow i always found new town to be very ill planned in a way.I really never got the logic of selling land at every corner of the town here and there sporadically so that complexes could sprout of middle of fields with nothing around them for miles.

They should have saturated action area and then moved on to the other areas in a proper and phased manner.

Also allocation of land is so hotch potch.You have a commercial structure like DLF 1 bang in the middle of residential area,shopping complexes here and there,hospitals like Tata being built beside Infospace,Uniworld city in another extreme and not to mention infosys and wipro in the wilderness

Obviously HIDCO would not have the money or inclination to provide infrastucture to all action areas at once,so why the hell are they so stupid to allow construction in those places?

And there is no "high street" as such too where normal and cheap shops,eateries,and conveniences,banks and other services could open too.These are extremely important for a success of societal living and the population cannot allways depend on expensive malls.

The biggest mistake IMO they made was not allowing the extension of the EW metro till rajarhat.

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by avishar

BENGAL’S ‘SHOWPIECE TOWNSHIP’ IS ALL SHOW AND MORE PAIN

What went wrong? Why did the New Town of promise fail to deliver? What lies ahead? TOI takes a trip down the dream destination that turned into a nightmare.

All this sounds so familiar. It reminds me of Salt Lake residents just two decades back.

Most Kolkatans didn't even understand anything about town planning or maps those days and would be running around water tanks to figure out how to go to different parts of Salt Lake. The simple numbering of blocks somehow confused everyone.

[arijeetb]

Originally Posted by Suncity

All this sounds so familiar. It reminds me of Salt Lake residents just two decades back.

Most Kolkatans didn't even understand anything about town planning or maps those days and would be running around water tanks to figure out how to go to different parts of Salt Lake. The simple numbering of blocks somehow confused everyone.

TOI does it yet again! As part of this report they posted a image of a empty stretch of road in front of Infospace/Tata hospital and exclaimed Where are the vehicles? Instead of seeing how the area is coming up they are frustrated with no vehicles on the roads. Sometimes I wonder if the main opposition party is filling the TOI coffeurs for publishing such juvenile trash

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by arijeetb

TOI does not yet again! As part of this report they posted a image of a empty stretch of road in front of Infospace/Tata hospital and exclaimed Where are the vehicles? Instead of seeing how the area is coming up they are frustrated with no vehicles on the roads. Sometimes I wonder if the main opposition party is filling the TOI coffeurs for publishing such juvenile trash

Well TOI had good company in trash journalism - The Telegraph, The Statesman.. But I guess they are slightly better than the king and queen of trash journalism - Ganashakti and Bartamaan. But these are part of and parcel of India. So we have to live with them.



Here's another piece from TOI

There are only about 1-2 lakh residents in New Town now

The margin of error in that statement seems to be pretty wide.

And what's this fascination with the word "techie" and "showpiece"?

Not to say that New Town doesn't have problems. I am sure it does have an awful lot of problems. Having lived in Salt Lake and Navi Mumbai - the growth pangs in those cities have been similar. And when I visited a new township south of Delhi a few years back, I was shocked to see the mismatch between some of the media created hype and the ground reality.

[studdmanster]

Originally Posted by Suncity

All this sounds so familiar. It reminds me of Salt Lake residents just two decades back.

Most Kolkatans didn't even understand anything about town planning or maps those days and would be running around water tanks to figure out how to go to different parts of Salt Lake. The simple numbering of blocks somehow confused everyone.

How would you expect that people from an unplanned city would be understanding the dos and donts in a planned city, and that in US modelled townships!!!

[debayanlahiri]

Originally Posted by avishar

This is downright criminal on HIDCO's part.First they spend peanuts on acquiring land from farmers and then they sell it to realtors for exorbitant rates and make tons of money and after that there is no development of infrastructure.


Somehow i always found new town to be very ill planned in a way.I really never got the logic of selling land at every corner of the town here and there sporadically so that complexes could sprout of middle of fields with nothing around them for miles.

They should have saturated action area and then moved on to the other areas in a proper and phased manner.

Also allocation of land is so hotch potch.You have a commercial structure like DLF 1 bang in the middle of residential area,shopping complexes here and there,hospitals like Tata being built beside Infospace,Uniworld city in another extreme and not to mention infosys and wipro in the wilderness

Obviously HIDCO would not have the money or inclination to provide infrastucture to all action areas at once,so why the hell are they so stupid to allow construction in those places?

And there is no "high street" as such too where normal and cheap shops,eateries,and conveniences,banks and other services could open too.These are extremely important for a success of societal living and the population cannot allways depend on expensive malls.

The biggest mistake IMO they made was not allowing the extension of the EW metro till rajarhat.

I do agree with you. HIDCO should have completed a major part of the planned township by now. Its not going the way it was promised, and Didi too didn't interfere with the township, until recently! Basic infrastructure is required at the earliest at Rajarhat..