Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Basanta Utsav in Rabindra Tirtha

This morning, Basanta Utsav in Rabi Tirtha was celebrated for the first time amid great enthusiasm and colour. The whole arena was very creatively decorated. Here was the first impression as one entered Rabi Tirtha at seven in the morning:

The performances by Dancers' Guild were very innovatively choreographed. It had all the flavours of Shantiniketan in a friendly non-invasive air and without the maddening crowd. Here is a picture of the dance by Dancers' Guild:
  Channel Tara News telecasted live. Other TV channels also came. All in all, it was a memorable and a very successful event. We already started planning for next year.
* * *
In the afternoon, I along with a whole lot of Hidco officers witnessed the launching of the Zorbing and Kayaking activities at Eco Park.
* * *
Here is a link to a video by "Chalo Jai" on Eco-Park: http://youtu.be/-vm-vIMVgCM
Posted by at

11 comments:

  1. AvickMarch 28, 2013 at 7:14 PM

    With more and more activities being added, can Ecopark management consider offering corporate packages for a day picnic under a friendly professionally managed team that includes activities, rides, team building games and food for group of 20 or more people with special care?
    It can be on offered on weekdays to balance load against weekend rush.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AbhishekMarch 29, 2013 at 3:06 AM

      I agree with Avick. Corporate team-outing / picnic/ day outing packages can earn extra money for HIDCO if the rates are not exorbitant. Also we can think of letting a portion of Eco Park for marriage. Currently there is an acute shortage of marriage venues with open spaces in Kolkata and Nalban made a fortune out of this.

      Delete
  2. AbhishekMarch 29, 2013 at 3:03 AM

    Sir, as per your update board meeting was supposed to be held on 28th March. Will you share some info on the latest auction of some of the big plots in New Town.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anjan BanerjeeMarch 29, 2013 at 5:11 PM

    Dear Sir,
    I feel marrige should be kept out of such green parks and tourist desinations. Marriages create lot of mess. Whereas sports and cultural activities to be enhanced as its happening currently.

    Also like to see overall faster infrastructure growth and setup of new companies to New town.
    Other than financial hub, I think education hub will be another area of growth. We can try to bring good UK/US/Aus professional college to India and setup overseas or joint venture institues as they have done in some other cities in Asia(Dubai/Singapore).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Debdeep MukherjeeMarch 29, 2013 at 7:26 PM

      I agree with you on this point. Marriage parties and caterers create a lot of mess and once the party is over they don't bother to clean it up.

      Delete
    2. AbhishekMarch 30, 2013 at 3:57 AM

      Hi Anjan,

      I agree with you on education hub. That will further get impetus when Presidency and St Xaviers start their operations ( these 2 have already got land allocated)
      . But we dont know till now whether they will even start in next 2-3 years. St Xaviers did not do anything in the EM Byepass plot allocated to them 15 years back.

      However I doubt whether we have such big parcels of contiguous lands in HIDCO left any more. Also for such things, we need to create huge awareness and advertorial campaigns to attract investors all across globe. I doubt HIDCO will ever do that.

      I will give an example. HIDCO recently auctioned a plot for medical college in New Town. I did not see a single advertisement of that in TOI Bangalore edition. Whenever HIDCO gives advertisement in TOI , that advertisement / article gets published only in Kolkata Edition of TOI and HIDCO folks think that article / advertisement got published all across India. I doubt whether anybody in HIDCO is aware that all over India publication of an advertisement has a different advertisement rate and big auction notifications need to be published all across India to attract investors.

      With a TOI Kolkata based advertisement campaign and article, will you think that we can dream of getting US Universities in New Town?

      Delete
  4. UnknownMarch 29, 2013 at 9:53 PM

    But a revenue stream is also needed to maintain the park so painstakingly being built up

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AbhishekMarch 30, 2013 at 3:41 AM

      Yes....I agree with you Sir. Unless we build a revenue stream....Eco Park will not be self-sustainable and would be dependent on HIDCO for funds for maintenance and we should not let this happen.....

      We should enforce some rules for cleaning up and penalizing....however even if some cleanup is needed ....that should be worth the money.

      Delete
    2. Anjan BanerjeeMarch 30, 2013 at 10:46 AM

      Very True Sir.... It should be able to generate minimum around 75% of overall cost own its own and may be support of around 25% from HIDCO. Entry fees for attractions should be charged which will be according to maintainence cost. Annual passes and student passes with subsidy should be introduced to bring more regular visitiors.

      Delete
  5. UnknownMarch 30, 2013 at 12:38 PM

    If Eco Park is given out to marriages, strict norms should be in place to see that the marriage party cleans up the place and does not leave it dirty. Also sir, please see to it that Eco Park does not become another Nalban or Victoria Memorial. Since it is a huge area, there is every chance of it becoming one. Agreed that romantic couples have very few places to go in Kolkata but Eco Park has to develop as an attractive famous destination for all and not another Nalban.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousDecember 4, 2013 at 4:09 PM

    Thanks for this nice post...



    Caterers in Kolkata

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)