Kolkata Project Update II - project news from Kolkata

[Euromast]

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Kolkata: Changi Airports International of Singapore, rated among the best airports in the world, has expressed interest in developing the integrated airport township near Durgapur.
Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd, the consortium working on the Rs 10,000 crore project christened Aerotropolis, received the EOI from Changi Airports a few days ago. Singapore Changi Airport caters to 80 airlines serving more than 180 cities in over 50 countries and is a major aviation hub in Asia-Pacific. When the third terminal begins operations next year, Changi will have an annual handling capacity of more than 64 million passengers.
While the 2,300 acre project at Andal, about 10 km from Durgapur and 35 km from Asansol, will be modest compared to Changi, its scope will be as diverse. The focus will be on cargo, supply chain and logistic hub with maintenance, repair and night parking facilities. An aviation academy is also proposed.
On the non-aviation side, Aerotropolis will house integrated facilities for hi-tech enterprises, standard design factories, IT park, housing, hospital, school, theme park and commercial centre.
The consortium comprises West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC), Asansol Durgapur Development Authority (ADDA), Pragati Social Infrastructure & Development (JV between Pragati47 and Hudco), Citystar Infrastructure and Lend Lease. While WBIDC and ADDA will together hold 11% equity, Pragati Social will have 44.5%. Citystar and Lend Lease will hold rest. Though Airports Authority of India will not invest, chairman K Ramalingam extended technical help during a meeting between CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and civil aviation minister Praful Patel.

[Civitas]

from Times of India ePaper of 10-Sep-2007

Bypass traffic chaos, reach airport in a jiffy
A 5-km road will be built to escape the traffic jams at Ultadanga and Lake Town, cutting down travel time to the airport
Suman Chakraborti | TNN

SMOOTH SAILING, ALL THE WAY The link road will start from where Salt Lake Bypass takes a right turn to enter Sec-V. It will pass by the east end of Salt Lake and meet up with VIP Road near Kestopur Distance Saved 10 KM Commuters will not only save time but also fuel and money. They neither have to suffer at Ultadanga crossing nor endure the longer route via Rajarhat to reach the airport
Harried by the traffic congestion at Ultadanga junction? Your troubles may soon be over. A link road connecting EM Bypass with VIP Road, bypassing Salt Lake, will ease traffic pressure at this key crossing and offer smooth sailing to vehicles to and from the airport.
The traffic chaos at Ultadanga is getting worse every day, with vehicles getting stuck here for almost half and hour on some days. With cars, buses, autos and vans streaming in from all directions, the junction has become a nightmare for both motorists and traffic planners.
It now takes nearly 45 minutes to reach the airport from Parama Island on EM Bypass. Commuters who take the Ultadanga-VIP Road route to reach Airport have to leave home much earlier, fearing that they would miss their flight due to traffic congestion.
The Kolkata Metropolitan Planning Committee (KMPC) racked its brains over the riddle and finally hit upon the solution: a link road.
KMPC has decided to divert all VIP Road and airport-bound vehicles, coming from the Chinrigata junction, along a link road that will connect EM Bypass with VIP Road, bypassing Salt Lake. The road would be about 5 km long. Once it comes up, it would take less than 15 minutes to reach VIP Road from Chinrigata.
“The plan has been chalked out specifically to ease traffic congestion at Ultadanga junction and to create a short-cut route for the airport in a short span of time. It will be a boon for vehicles coming from Park Circus or Rashbehari connector,” said a KMPC official.
The project will be implemented by KMDA. KMPC has already approved the plan and it will be executed in the second five-year plan of ‘Vision-2025’.
According to the blueprint, the link road will start from where the existing Salt Lake Bypass takes a right turn to enter Sector-V after crossing the Wipro office. It will cross through the east end of Salt
Lake and touch VIP Road near Kestopur.
The primary reason for planning the link road was to make life easy for fliers, a KMPC official said. The route commonly taken to the airport — EM Bypass-Ultadanga-VIP Road — is so congested, particularly at Ultadanga and Lake Town, that passengers ran the risk of missing their flight. Some did.
The other route taken to reach the airport — passing through Rajarhat — is a longer option. The distance from Chinrigata to the Haldiram’s crossing on VIP Road is more than 20 km. The key was, thus, to bypass Ultadanga and Salt Lake.
With the existing NSC Bose airport to be modernised next year, thousand more vehicles would enter and exit from the airport and would take either VIP Road or Rajarhat main road. The link road becomes all the more important. It will especially benefit south-bound vehicles.
Officials said residents of Salt Lake would also benefit from the link road as it would cross the east side of the township. “Those who are headed for Baguiati or any other place on VIP Road from Salt Lake, will get to avoid the traffic snarl at Ultadanga crossing,” said an official.

[kronik]

Allah O Akbar! Kolkata airport modernization is good news. Lets see how much teeth this old AAI has..

[Nitro]

A whole bunch of projects that we have never seen before, unfortunately these CANT be posted. Check out 'Current Projects' list, I really hope some of them get built>>>

http://www.sanonsen.com

please note: there is a good chance many of these wont get built

[Civitas]

Where is it coming in Bantala ? There is supposed to be a Cognizant Technologies (CTS) campus in that area. Can anybody mark it in Wikimapia ?

http://www.telegraphindia.com/107091...ry_8300007.asp

Coming up, an IT resort

Duplex offices with sky terraces, fast-track conferencing alongside hip dining, club, spa and cafe — all wrapped in a cascading canopy of water.

Welcome to Technopolis 2, a Rs 400-crore, 1.5-million sq ft IT resort coming up inside the Bantala leather complex as a 10-acre SEZ. The first phase will be delivered in 12 months, with the project completion date set for March 2009.

“Technopolis (in Sector V) was India’s first IT infrastructure conforming to the US Green Building Council’s LEED certification. Our effort is to take our green commitment to the next notch and create a first-of-its-kind plug-and-play IT domain,” Rahul Saraf, managing director of Forum Projects, tells Metro.

The home-grown real estate firm, which gave Calcutta its first integrated retail mall, Forum on Elgin Road, is on an aggressive rollout drive, with 30 million sq ft worth of projects in hand.

Technopolis 2 has been designed by DP Architects of Singapore, creators of the Vivo City mall in the island nation, and will “cover only 25 per cent of the land area”, according to Saraf. The rest will be landscaped with a water thread running right through.

Forum Projects is doing another mixed-use development in Bantala over 36 acres, with a built-in 10-acre waterbody. Peng Beng Khu of Singapore-based Arc Studio, the firm doing the hotel at the Lady Ranu Mukherjee address on Camac Street, is providing the design solution.

“The Bantala project will have high-tech conferencing, a retail mall with multiplex, a 125-room boutique hotel, a club, serviced apartments, residential towers and parking for 1,200 cars,” explains Saraf.

The group, which beat the Tatas to bag a 300-acre-plus land parcel in Action Area V of Rajarhat, will develop “a green IT township” there, “to cater to tomorrow’s urban demands and environmental issues”.

If Forum 2 is set to come up on the Chandra Garden opposite Science City, Forum Projects is also developing an 850,000-sq ft integrated residential complex in Howrah, opposite Don Bosco Liluah, in partnership with SpringField Projects Pvt Ltd of Silver Spring fame.

Forum Projects, which now has a land bank worth over Rs 3,500 crore, is also investing big beyond Bengal. A retail-cum-hospitality project in joint venture with the Jamshedpur civic body to celebrate the centenary year of Tata Steel, will be ready in 20 months.

A mixed-use city-centre development in Adityapur across 22.5 acres with hospitals, club, cineplex, retail, residential and conferencing facilities, and a 550,000-sq ft lifestyle mall in Bhubaneswar with 1,200 car parks are the other large-format projects on the group’s 5.5 million-sq ft retail roadmap.

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by Nitro

A whole bunch of projects that we have never seen before, unfortunately these CANT be posted. Check out 'Current Projects' list, I really hope some of them get built>>>

http://www.sanonsen.com

please note: there is a good chance many of these wont get built

Some of the projects that looked interesting to me

High End Residential apartment (in association with DP Architecs) at 13/2 Ballygunge Park Road - This one has topped out.

Chatterjee International Renovation - almost completed

Dhanshree Towers - completed

Ideal Residency (in association with Hafeez Contractor) - completed

Merlin Regency - up on builder's website for booking

The Pinnacle, 86 Topsia Road - think this is u/c

Merlin Warden lake View - up on builder's website for booking

Synthesis (in association with Karan Grover) - under construction

Ideal City (in association with Hafeez Contractor) - up for booking

Ideal Lake View (in association with Hafeez Contractor) - up for booking

Commercial Building at JC20 ??

TCG tech park - ??

Emaar MGF Hotel - next to ITC Sonar Bangla

[SarafIndian]

Originally Posted by Suncity

Some of the projects that looked interesting to me

High End Residential apartment (in association with DP Architecs) at 13/2 Ballygunge Park Road - This one has topped out.

Chatterjee International Renovation - almost completed

Dhanshree Towers - completed

Ideal Residency (in association with Hafeez Contractor) - completed

Merlin Regency - up on builder's website for booking

The Pinnacle, 86 Topsia Road - think this is u/c

Merlin Warden lake View - up on builder's website for booking

Synthesis (in association with Karan Grover) - under construction

Ideal City (in association with Hafeez Contractor) - up for booking

Ideal Lake View (in association with Hafeez Contractor) - up for booking

Commercial Building at JC20 ??

TCG tech park - ??

Emaar MGF Hotel - next to ITC Sonar Bangla

Chatterjee International Renovation -> Is not it done?

TCG tech park -> It is a part of BIPL(Business Intelligence Park Ltd, Sector V). I think it is almost done. I used to work in one IT firm in BIPL during my days in Calcutta.

[sidney_jec]

Source: TOI Epaper



is this site for residential or comeercial purpose???

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by SarafIndian

Chatterjee International Renovation -> Is not it done?

Not sure. It looks kind of completed.

Originally Posted by SarafIndian

TCG tech park -> It is a part of BIPL(Business Intelligence Park Ltd, Sector V). I think it is almost done. I used to work in one IT firm in BIPL during my days in Calcutta.

I think this one is different from BIPL. It is called First Digital Park. There is another called First Intelligent Place.

http://www.tcgre.com/

[dover16]

Not much new info, but from today's Telegraph:


An artist’s impression of DLF’s Grand Mall coming up in Rajarhat

[dover16]

http://www.telegraphindia.com/107091...ry_8187767.asp

Rs 650cr plan to unclog roads
DEEPANKAR GANGULY AND SIMI KAMBOJ

The civic body and the state government are planning to build five mini-flyovers at intersections and widen and extend several arterial roads to decongest important zones in the city.

The five flyovers will be constructed at Moulali, Ballygunge Phari, Mullickbazar, Ultadanga and Shyambazar by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) at a cost of Rs 150 crore.

The Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) and the transport department, on the other hand, have joined hands to draw up a Rs 500-crore blueprint for widening and extending arterial roads.

The plan includes extension of Amherst Street from BB Ganguly Street to Lenin Sarani, extension of Jadavpur Central Road to Deshapran Sashmal Road and construction of a link between Belgachhia Road and Ultadanga.

According to government officials, extension of Amherst Street via Sashi Bhushan Dey Street will help south-bound vehicles to reach Lenin Sarani without taking Chittaranjan Avenue and clogging Esplanade. The proposed extension of Jadavpur Central Road is expected to help vehicles moving westward to reach Deshapran Sashmal Road, Rashbehari Avenue and Tollygunge.

The construction of the link from Belgachhia Road to Ultadanga (over the Ultadanga railway yard) will benefit south-bound vehicles, including those moving towards Salt Lake. The cars will be able to avoid the congestion at Jessore Road-Lake Town crossing and Shyambazar.

The flyover on BT Road, connecting Bhupen Bose Avenue and RG Kar Road, will reduce congestion at the Shyambazar crossing, while the one at Ballygunge Phari will reduce congestion on Gariahat Road by connecting Hazra Road with Bondel Road and Broad Street.

The Mullickbazar flyover will start near Assembly of God Church school and stretch over AJC Bose Road to the tram tracks. The flyover on Moulali will connect Lenin Sarani to CIT Road over AJC Bose Road.

The flyovers will be built on turn-key basis and the CMC will soon invite expressions of interest along with conceptual designs from builders.

Five more flyovers on city intersections will be considered in the second phase, said officials.

The CMC is also working towards providing a mastic asphalt coat to all city roads. About 80 per cent of the city roads have a mastic asphalt cover now.

“After two or three years, the civic roads department will only have to do maintenance work. The number of cars on the road is likely to shoot up. We should prepare for that,” said CMC commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay.

The roads to be widened in the north under the CMDAtransport department master plan include Jessore Road (from Shyambazar to Barasat), Rajarhat Road, Howrah-Amta Road, Andul Road (from NH 6 to Vidyasagar Setu), Foreshore Road (from Telkalghat Road to Vidyasagar Setu) and Dum Dum Road.

In the south, Biren Roy Road (East and West), MG Road, Coal Dock Road, Hyde Road and Taratala Road will be widened.

“The metropolitan centre is the hub of cultural and business activity. Though it covers only 15 per cent of the total metropolis, around 47 per cent of Calcutta Metropolitan Area’s (CMA) population is concentrated here,” said a CMDA official.

Transport department officials feel that the measures would cut travel time by 50 per cent and decongest Shyambazar, Ultadanga, Belgachhia, Dum Dum, Howrah, Esplanade, Sealdah station, Behala and the Port area.

“There is no scope to build new roads. But existing roads will be widened to the extent possible,” said an official. The department is trying to determine to what extent the roads in the city can be widened.

Thirty per cent of the funds for the projects will be provided under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission while the state government will foot the rest of the bill.

Road widening will begin after Puja and will be carried out in phases.

[SarafIndian]

DLF, India’s largest real estate company, is poised to invest Rs 100,000 crore in Calcutta and Dankuni in the next seven years.

“Our second largest land bank after Karnataka is in Bengal. The integrated Dankuni township, to be spread across 4,840 acres, alone will account for Rs 50,000 crore,” A.S. Minocha, the chairman of DLF Commercial Developers Ltd, told Metro from Gurgaon.

Other projects spanning IT, residential, hospitality and retail add up to Rs 50,000 crore.

Tower I of the group’s first IT park in Rajarhat has been completed and taken up by IBM. The Rs 350-crore project has two more towers being readied, adding up to 1.3 million sq ft.

The second IT park, coming up on 25 acres in Action Area II of Rajarhat, is a Rs 700-crore project, with six towers and 2.5 million sq ft of leasable area. It is billed to be ready by end-2009. Designed by Hafeez Contractor, the park will have nearly 100,000 people working in three shifts.

DLF is also set to bring in three hotels, with a combined investment of Rs 1,000 crore. The 600-room Bypass address with Hilton will be the showpiece.

"We recognise some very positive changes taking place in West Bengal and the government is focused on economic growth. We want to partner the state in that growth," said Rajeev Talwar, group executive director.

The Dankuni township, for which DLF coughed up Rs 56 lakh per acre, has been conceptualised as a "walk-to-work" module. The group has shortlisted two US town-planner firms, who will provide three concept design solutions each in the next two months.

"We will freeze a design by this yearend and should break ground by the middle of next year. Dankuni will be one of the most modern townships in the country, complete with housing in all income segments plus hotels, hospitals, schools, colleges, lakes, malls and lots of landscaped greenery," declared Minocha.

[SarafIndian]

http://www.telegraphindia.com/107091...ry_8303948.asp

[SarafIndian]

Originally Posted by dover16

http://www.telegraphindia.com/107091...ry_8187767.asp

Did they start working on Sector-V(Wipro Junction) flyover?

[IndiansUnite]

Rosedale Garden, New Town --> 6 towers @ G+25 floors

Walkthru Video






Website

[arijeetb]

Originally Posted by SarafIndian

Did they start working on Sector-V(Wipro Junction) flyover?

Is there a flyover being constructed here ? I read a report of a new link road starting here for faster access to the airport without having to go thru rajarhat.

[arijeetb]

Originally Posted by dover16

http://www.telegraphindia.com/107091...ry_8187767.asp

Great news. If these projects are completed in the next 3 years it would do a world of good for Kolkata's traffic.

Can someone pls clarify ?The Mullickbazar flyover will start near Assembly of God Church school and stretch over AJC Bose Road to the tram tracks.
Will this go over the existing flyover on ajc bose rd?

[Hindustani]

If these really & finally come up, It will change the trend of Calcutta highrises from mostly concrete to mostly glass.

Originally Posted by indiansunite

Rosedale Garden, New Town --> 6 towers @ G+25 floors

Walkthru Video






Website

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by Hindustani

If these really & finally come up, It will change the trend of Calcutta highrises from mostly concrete to mostly glass.

These are under construction.

[sidney_jec]

Source: TOI Epaper

IT’S HOT
Dubai firm bags tender for Rajarhat IT hub
Sumali Moitra | TNN

Kolkata: A consortium, led by Dubai’s Emirates Trading Agency (ETA), has bagged the much-touted Webel tender to develop an IT hub on 330 acres at Rajarhat after edging out a string of competitors, including DLF, Shapoorji Pallonji and Tata Group.
Mall developer Rahul Saraf, who has since diversified into development of IT infrastructure, is a part of the ETA-led consortium.
Emirates Trading Agency belongs to the $4-billion ETA-Ascon group, whose interests range from engineering and construction to property development and retail.
Sources said although the tender to build a tech hub at Rajarhat’s Jagadishpur mouza was opened last month, the state has so far decided to keep quiet on the ETA-related development fearing that doing so could hinder land acquisition for the venture. The 330-acre plot, identified for the IT project, is yet to be acquired.
“The cost of the 330-acre plot alone could exceed Rs 1,000 crore and the total project, which is likely to be completed in 5-7 years, could cost upwards of Rs 4,000 crore,” an official said.
The sources said that as part of the arrangement with Webel, the ETA-led consortium would have to return 160 acre to Webel after some time for use by the latter. “Doing so will not diminish the attractiveness of the deal as rent
for commercial space will continue to be on the upswing at Rajarhat for the next few years given the IT boom we are witnessing in the state,” the official added. State IT minister Debesh Das and ETA officials could not be reached for comment.
The controversy generated by the police firing in Nandigram on March 14 that killed 14 people has already pushed back the Jagadishpur IT project by six months. Initially, the choice of the developer for this venture was supposed to have been made by April. Webel had invited expressions of interest for the project last year.
Although a late starter in the IT arena, the city has made giant strides in this segment since 2003 with software exports from here growing faster than the national average.
Exports from the city’s software technology park (STP) surged 46% to Rs 3,162 crore in 2006-07. The high pace of growth was sustained in the first quarter of 2007-08 with exports from the Kolkata STP rising 41% to Rs 916.52 crore between April and June.
Bengal has set itself a target to emerge as one of India’s top three IT states by 2010 with a 15% share of the country’s total software exports by the end of the decade. Currently, the state’s share of India’s overall software exports is less than 5%. Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, National Capital Region and Mumbai account for the bulk of India’s software exports.