Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Bank Branch Plot

Many banks often approach us for getting a space for setting up a Bank Branch in New Town's Action Area I. Today we published a notice in newspapers inviting applications for  a 457 sq m plot in Action Area I for setting up a bank branch. It will be allotted through e-auction to be held on 5th June.
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In the citizen meet, there have been complaints that in the area near DLF building, the roadside makeshift stalls selling food items create a problem for the residents.We are creating a food court only a few hundred metres away. I had seen such a food court in Singapore where various small vendors make snacks of various types under one large roof. Here is a picture of the site which I visited recently:
Food Court in Action Area I, New Town:
Likely to be inaugurated in June 13
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The 5 member Fact Finding Committee on the collapsed bridge in Ultadanga met today and made the draft final report. The final report will be put up to the members for a last review within a week by the member-secretary, I hope.

9 comments:

  1. Sir,
    This is great, really great initiative. Thanks a ton for implementing this.

    Hopefully there will be similar stalls near Unitech also, as there also citizen's are plagued with similar problem.

    Also in Kolkata we have always seen new hawkers come up in some more days and take up existing vacated road-space. Hopefully this will not happen here once everyone is rehabilited. We need equally capable monitoring and stringent rules so that no new hawkers can appear.

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    2. This is really a fantastic initiative. Kudos to you for making the idea of food court happen. Great !!!

      We need to keep the food court clean, maintain hygiene and also ensure that the pavements remain encroachment free after that. Under no circumstances , no fresh hawkers should be allowed.

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  2. Sir,
    This is a great NEWS for we New Town residents and food lovers.
    What will be the criteria and whom to contact regarding getting these stalls. I hope that increased competition and hygiene check up will surely make it as per global standard.
    Thnaks

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  3. Sir, I just feel that we may better utilize the space/land by allowing ground floor for bank branch and 1-2 additonal floor for shops or small offices. Please correct me if I misunderstood the purpose of this building. Also banks can open branches is private commercial buildings rather than an exclusive land for it which may be more expensive for banks.

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  4. Sir, a request for you...as you are supervising and coordinating NGRBA as well as ferry wheel project.

    I was in Kolkata a few weeks back and visited the renovated river bank stretch from Princep Ghat to Outram Ghat. It was really beautiful. However virtually there was no eateries/ pubs/ snacks joints except a few hawkers.

    Also from Babughat to Howrah Bridge, the stretch was in a mess. I understand that work is going on. However I feel we also need to massively upgrade Strand Road and its buildings. The buildings are in a dilapidated condition and traffic is horrible in this stretch. Can we build an elevated stretch with ramps at important junctions to offload traffic on road? Also perhaps a few underpasses are needed.

    Also we need to upgrade the buildings and make the footpath encroachment free. I saw a TOI report on one of the building restoration projects. We need more of them.

    http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-04-30/kolkata/38928873_1_strand-road-new-avatar-construction-company

    Perhaps the govt needs to coordinate with the building owners and traders. Also since the entire stretch of road is going to become a tourist hub in near future, I think the building owners would also not want to miss out on the number of new eateries that they can get as tenants.

    May be management of Strand road is with KMC / KMDA. However since you are well - networked, this is a request for you to do something with the Strand Road as you can make the ball rolling.

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  5. The Food Court is an excellent and innovative step to address the menace of mushrooming roadside stalls seen everywhere in Newtown. Even the Hidco office has one just next to it. The ADSR office has at least 30 stalls around it, when I saw it last.
    The challenge now would be to move the existing roadside stallholders to this food court, deterring people from setting up new roadside shops and most importantly, to convince the people to patronise the food court.
    I sincerely hope that for the sake of future residents of this beautiful township, we succeed in this endeavour...

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  7. See a lot of requests for civic authorities to ensure that the street are again not re-occupied by hawkers. Zamindari has long been abolished from our society. It is time that we adapt to a lifestyle where we fend for ourselves rather than expect somebody else to do the dirty work for us. So, now that authorities are putting up the infrastructure, WE NEED TO ENSURE THAT OUR STREETS REMAIN HAWKER FREE. Let each person start a campaign in his/her work and social environment that we will stick to the food courts (counting that a few more of those will come up at frequently visited sites) and not patronize the new stalls. Let us take responsibility for maintaining what the authorities are giving us and LEAVE THE AUTHORITIES FREE TO DEVELOP INFRASTRUCTURE AND MAINTAIN ESSENTIALS (Electricity, Water, Law & Order, Fire Services, etc.).

    Continuing on the same note, could you Mr. Sen modify your procedures to concentrate your department's efforts on the good work you all are doing on developing infrastructure. Why should your department be allocating resources towards clearing building wastes? Nowhere in the developed world is this acceptable. General practice is that everything should be confined to the plot that the buyer has been given --- so the ground floor is the last to be done after cleaning up the ground area. Encroachment of public space has fines, somewhere per day, somewhere lump sum. And when the mop up operations are undertaken by authorities, the bill for the same (including departmental manpower expenditure) is appended to the penalty already imposed. Can't something similar be done so that New Town has a new society with a new culture (where duties come before rights)? (deleted the earlier comment to add this request)

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