The sixth intersection of New Town has a confluence of five 10-lane roads. As such, to enable pedestrians to cross from one side to the other, a complicated underground ring subway is being constructed. A transportation consultant was engaged by Hidco to design this subway: during the initial stage I'd also articulated my views. Now the road to airport is being cut and the traffic is diverted through the service road. Yesterday morning I inspected the site:
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| Why the road to / from airport is being diverted? |
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Yesterday, Father Felix Raj, Principal of St Xaviers' College, met me at Hidco and handed over a banker's cheque for 75% of the land value. Here is a picture at my office chamber :
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L to R: Ravi Kant Kasat, Sutanu Kar, me, ather Felix, Finance Officer Hidco:
Handing over cheque |
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Today evening, at Rabindra Tirtha, I saw Chand Sawdagar. Here is a photo:
Great to hear this. The 6th Intersection, I believe; would be one of the busiest rotaries of NewTown in near future.
ReplyDeleteI am thankful that the subway is being constructed. Crossing the MAR at that point was always risky; and I believe the ring subways would go a long way to resolve that. Please consider construction of an escalator or elevator for the elderly/ pregnant women who might find it difficult to climb the stairs.
The subway is a real nice thing. As Sowmik suggested, escalator is definitely needed.
ReplyDeleteSt Xaviers has a long tradition of holding land and not doing anything there. They have been given acres of land near Peerless Hospital decades back but they did not do anything there. Lets not have that same thing repeated in New Town . Honourable CM gave them the formal land allotment letter on 22nd December and they have been given around 16-17 acres at hugely discounted rate.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1121223/jsp/bengal/story_16351668.jsp#.UNZAIqyHUY4
But 2 months after that, they are paying only 75% of that value...that itself is pretty scary.
PS: Sitting in Bangalore, I am yet to come across a single advertisement of medical college plot in either Times of India or Economic Times.
Just now, read this report that Kolkata Eye project will be now with UD Department.Definitely a good news as it will be under a superb executor like you.
ReplyDeletehttp://portal.thebengalpost.com/index.php/index/newsdetails/Giant-wheel-now-with-urban-dept-440415281360169664
But the report says that it will take 7 years for the project to get completed. Sir, cant we have a shorter timeframe?
Also , can we expect a uplift of Strand Road as well as Burrabazar, which is one of the most dirty places of the city, as a by-product of Kolkata Eye Project?
Another good project.
ReplyDeleteI think a transport research authority or something like that could be setup as a division of HIDCO. It could study and find solution regarding the state's and particularly the city's traffic problems. At-least this could be done for the city. This will help the different transport agencies to coordinate their activities. Also, it could find out which kind of traffic infrastructure is needed where. This unit should be totally dedicated to solving transport problem.
One suggestion ( I don't know if its already there), the pedestrian subway near Howrah station could be extended a little bit, i.e. accross the road in front of the place where many hotels are situated. This will help people who want to cross the road. Also, a bus stop could be built there and the buses coming from different parts of Howrah could be made to stop only on that place. This way passengers would not have to cross the road after getting of a bus and will be able to take the subway and go right into the station or the main bus terminus.
A proposal was once mooted by Central Govt to form an UMTA, Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority in each state.
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