Sunday, November 25, 2012

Authority Meeting of DSDA at Digha

Yesterday, we had the Board meeting of DSDA at Digha. We took a number of decisions including probable day of next year's Beach Festival on 23-25 Jan 2012. We also decided to invite Expression of Interest for bids for Hovercraft Service and Snow Park. We decided to earmark land for a Catering and Hotel Management Institute at Digha and for a Circuit House at Digha.

Before the meeting, District Magistrate Parvez Siddiqui and me visited Shankarpur. The beach embankment was so eroded that no one could go to the beach at all. Locals seemed quite agitated that tourists were shying away from Shankarpur as they could not go to the sea beach. Here is a photo:
Sea erosion at Shankarpur
 We decided at the DSDA meet to construct a wooden pedestrian walkway soon, pending setting up of a heavy erosion resistant concrete ghat.

I was happy to know that a small structure at Amaravati Park that we'd given to the Fisheries Department for a Coffee Shop had started functioning. Here is a photo:
New Coffee Shop in New Digha 

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7 comments:

  1. AbhishekNovember 25, 2012 at 7:57 PM

    You were really prompt Sir. !!!!

    EOI for hovercraft and snow park will be too good to resist. So is the hovercraft service being planned from Kolkata?

    With the growth of tourists, Catering and Hotel Management Institute, will also be apt.

    Coastal Erosion is a problem in Bay of Bengal, which unlike Arabian Sea, is wild. Bay of Bengal is somewhat like Atlantic ocean which also poses this trouble of erosion to the coastal cities. Perhaps we need a little long term solution.

    Links point to what New York City and New Jersey is doing to manage the severe erosion from Atlantic.

    http://www.beachapedia.org/State_of_the_Beach/State_Reports/NJ/Beach_Erosion

    http://www.beachapedia.org/State_of_the_Beach/State_Reports/NY/Beach_Erosion

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    Replies
    1. AbhishekNovember 25, 2012 at 8:24 PM

      A link for the beach nourishment exercise that is carried out along the Atlantic coastal town of USA.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_nourishment

      To me, this looked better than the boulder approach we take usually. Due to boulders, people just stop visiting the coasts.

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  2. AbhishekNovember 25, 2012 at 8:12 PM

    As the tourist inflow is bound to grow, naturally people would like to have a vacation home in the towns of Sankarpur, Mandarmani, Tajpur and Udaipur ( as Digha is heavily congested and roads are also very narrow).

    Moreover these type of residential development can act as a good source of revenue for the state govt as well.

    A good number of Bombay elites have their vacation homes in Goa.

    Are we planning to prepare LUDCP plans for places like Mandarmani, Sankarpur etc with proper connectivity ( I am assuming the previously planned coastal toad between Digha ,Sankarpur and Mandamani is dropped) by widening existing roads, developing roads within the town and creating new localities with electricity, sewerage, pavements and parks?

    That will spur development of vacation home township projects by builders in these towns.

    An old point. The much waited introduction of water adventure sports can be tourism magnet. At least facilities for snorkeling, scuva diving and balloon rides are a must.

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  3. Parwez Ahmad SiddiquiNovember 25, 2012 at 9:01 PM

    Sir, U have missed to mention few more developments in Digha-
    1. The Digha Bye Pass Project which you started is about to complete and under Your chairmanship the DSDA Board also decided to name it " Swami Vivekanand Road" as a tribute to the great personality on his 150th birth centenary.
    2. A Ropeway is also about to come up in Digha's Amarabati Park soon. Bidder identified.

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    Replies
    1. AbhishekNovember 25, 2012 at 11:37 PM

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. AbhishekNovember 25, 2012 at 11:38 PM

      Thanks Mr. Parwez for providing the inputs. Byepass project, if wide enough and pavemented, will be really nice.

      If we can have the Byepass demarcated in the map uploaded in DSDA website, that will be great. Also, as of now, DSDA website is not containing the maps of Sankarpur, Junput, Tajpur and Mandarmani.


      But if you look at the blog post by Mr Sen on 29th June, 2012, many other projects were mentioned:

      http://principalsecretarysblog.blogspot.in/2012/06/landscape-design-for-new-town.html

      The major announced projects which , I think, all the citizens are eagerly waiting for are the following:

      (i) Ayurvedic Health Centre
      (ii) Mega Tourism Hub
      (iii) Tajpur / Alampur centre
      (iv) Gates for Digha / New Digha - Actual construction
      (v) Digha Nandakumar road widening ( though supposed to be done by NHAI)
      (vi) Road connecting Digha - Mandarmani - Tajpur-Sankarpur
      (vii) Deer Park

      Delete
    3. UnknownNovember 28, 2012 at 10:30 PM

      Thanks, Parwez, for supplementing

      Delete

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