Bonjemari

I went to Durgapur yesterday. After the review meeting on JnNRUM, I sat with officers and planners of ADDA who are involved in the project for resettlement of subsidence-prone villages. I learnt that a possible site is located at Bomjemari, close to Maithon dam (pic on left) near Jharkhand border. About 2-3 lakh people will be rehabilited at this and other locations. Although it is a long-term project, calling for huge resources over the years, I talked about things that we may take into consideration while making plans for the new town.

It is not often that one gets a greenfield town project, especially in a densely populated state like West Bengal. I urged the planners to think 'out of the box'. I indicated that our focus now may centre around more green spaces for the children and citizens to move around, taller buildings, more underground utilities and transport hubs (I told them about the Masdar City project in Abu Dhabi), energy and carbon neutrality, optimising wind use and generally looking two or three decades into the future.

I plan to visit the spots next month or so.

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On my way to Durgapur,  I stopped by to visit the housing project called Rennaissance in Burdwan. The project is a joint venture of BDA (Burdwan Development Authority). I saw two model houses (pic at right) and quite liked them. I advised them to built in some environment friendly features into the project if possible.