Saturday, September 28, 2013

Happy Days in New Town Kolkata

Last year, soon after the Puja festival, we organised Cultural Meets among various housing / block associations of New Town. Children and grown-ups displayed their best performances from their community pujas to an audience that cut across the entire New Town. There was such an enthusiasm that it was difficult fitting in all requests.

Now a year has passed by. The Eco Park is drawing attention from all over Kolkata and beyond. Nearly 2 lakh visitors have already set in their foot in the Park that is barely few months old. The blue autumn skies are round the corner in Kolkata, to be followed by the Kolkata's Winter of melas and fairs. In this season, I am trying to make New Town Kolkata join in.

Here are a few events that we are planning:

1. Agamani Gaan (Rabindra Tirtha, 29th September)
2. Chess competition (Opposite Eco Park, Finance Centre Building, 1-2 Oct 2013)
3. Pujar Adda (Rabindra Tirtha)
4. Remote controlled aircraft model display (Eco Park, 4th Oct, Mahalaya)
5. Car race in go-kart formation (Eco Park Car Park, 6th Oct)
6. Exhibition Rugby match (Action Area I, 9 Nov)
7. Post Puja Sanmelan (26-27 Oct)
8. Grafitti Workshop
9. New Town Mela (23 Oct - 3 Nov)
10. Musical Carnival (21-31 December)
11. Children's Film Premier (December, Eco Park)
12. Car Race in laps (Action Area II, January 2014)
13.  Children's Film Festival (January 2014, Rabindra Tirtha)
14. Kite Festival (4-5 Jan 2014)

As may be seen, some programmes are in the process of being finalised. There would be additions and deletions, alterations and postponements. However, I believe that New Town Kolkata would definitely be a destination that will be difficult to ignore.
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Here is a cutting from Ekdin that I came across:

5 comments:

  1. Real a great idea of creating a greenwalk.... this will go a long way in becoming an example of green initiatives in city planning.
    As for the programmes that you listed, its a great head start to make this an eventful place for the city. Slowly and steadily we need to increase the catchment area of the crowd and increase it manifold in quantity and quality with the coming years, to make it a popular event location for people from other parts of the country as well. This would mean organise events that appeal to a larger group of people.
    Just for an example sort, we can look into possibilities like bringing in Sunburn Festival, as they did in Noida or host events similar to NH7 Weekends to appeal to the younger generation- most of who are employed in the nearby IT sectors. This way Kolkata too will be a sort after destination as it is the youths of today for Bangalore and Pune. With patronising from them new shops, restaurants and other social facilities will get a much needed filip and bring in more investments, specially in Newtown area with its large land and planned land bank.

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  2. Just with reference to my earlier comments I would add that if the Government can create a body similar to the Urban Arts Commission of Delhi, it would take care better of the beatification project, as well as look after listing, preserving, adaptive reuse of heritage structures (taking load of the metropolitan authorities). I gather there was a body similar to this under the Governor when Mr. Gopalkrishna Gandhi was in Office. I guess, constituting a body with the responsibility of Urban Design can be of great help. Additionally, there can be responsibilities, for trade promotion and alike similar to the body as in London. It can look into how, new trades can be accommodated, plus host events (the ones i mentioned in the earlier comments and similar other events), and also National and International Level Conferences, Sports Events, etc, thus, help in promoting the city regularly through events. This can go a long way in bringing back the airlines to serve the city airport, and may be bring more investment in the hospitality and convention industry.
    With a larger viewpoint, the whole idea can be made in tandem with Durgapur as well so that the investment can be distributed, thus creating opportunity to create a counter magnet to Kolkata with strong connectivity.

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  3. WBTPO is an organization of Industries Department that promotes trade. WBIDC promotes industry and investment. In Urban Development, ADDA promotes investment and industry in Durgapur, Asansol and Raghunathpur. And I believe that aesthetics and building design should best be left to qualified architects.

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