EWS Flats

Notice has been published today in newspapers like Times of India and others inviting applications for allotment of 139 EWS flats in three locations of New Town. Details can be seen at http://wbhidcoltd.com/uploads/announcement/Brochure_EWS_2016_f.pdf .
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Clippings:

Times of India dt 7 Dec 2016

Khabar 365 dt 7 Dec 2016

NGO Meet on Snehodiya

Networking Meeting with NGOs : Sujoy Chanda Jt CP (KP), CP Bdn Gyanwant Singh, me, A K Patnaik, Sutanu Ghosh: on dias
(Photo courtesy Krittibas Nayek)

As decided earlier ( see http://principalsecretarysblog.blogspot.in/2016/11/snehodiya-senior-citizen-habitat.html ) we had a meeting with NGOs dealing with Senior Citizens including Dignity Foundation, Helpage India, Support Elders, Vivekananda Ramkrishna Mission, CMIG, Women Interlink Foundation, All Bengal Women Union etc and also Gyanwant Sigh IPS Commissioner of Police Bidhannagar (who are running Saanjhbati Programme), Sujoy Chanda IPS Jt CP Kolkata Police (who are running  Pronam). Architects Pace Consultants gave a presentation and there was a great brainstorming session. Key takeaways were : Try separate toilet cubicles or, better, single occupancy rooms; use staff trained to deal with elders; tie up with hospital for emergency care; keep standby ambulance; keep medical help handy etc. I agreed to many of the suggestions.
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Clipping:

Millennium Post dt 6 Dec 2016

Poetry Festival, Mela and Book Fair at New Town

I held a review meeting yesterday Sunday regarding preparations for the ensuing New Town Mela, New Town Book Fair and National Poetry Festival, all scheduled to start on 23-24 Dec 2016. It was decided that an MoU will be signed among Hidco, NKDA and Boi Mela Committee and that Asit Chatterjee, Joint Secretary UD, Anup Matilal Curator RT and Prasanta Maji Administrator Swapna Bhor would be govt nominees.

The New Town Mela would be held on the Mela Ground near Rabindra Tirtha. A special pedestrian entry and a Bus Stop near the main gate is being arranged by Hidco. The Mela will showcase cultural functions from Durgotsav Committees every day and attempts are being to bring in sponsored artistes as well. The Mela is being organised by NKDA.

The Boi Mela, normally held in February for last two years, has been preponed to synergise with the Mela so that more people can have the choices. Along with the Boi Mela, scheduled to be held in Swapna Bhor (Senior Citizen Park) a 3-day National Poetry Festival is also being organised for the first time in Swapna Bhor by the Boi Mela Committee in collaboration with Hidco and NKDA. This will be a unique attempt to strengthen Kolkata's image as the Cultural Hub of India.Invitations to prominent poets from within and outside the state are being sent out. There would be many other activities as well.
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Clippings:

Asian Age dt 5 Dec 2016

Millennium Post dt 5 Dec 2016

Bartaman dt 5 Dec 2016

Central Park Frontage

Salt Lake Central Park Frontage Beautification Scheme

Few days ago, I along with engineers of UD Diraj Dhar, Special Engineer and others inspected the front portion of Central Park, Salt Lake. The Park is maintained by UD's engineering wing at Nirman Bhavan and is very extensively used especially in winter. Sabala Mela is going on now and just before that there was CII's Travel and Tourism Fair. In fact all dates till February are booked and some notable users every year, other than the ones already mentioned, include Bidhannagar Mela, Saras Mela, Rathyatra, Rabindra Jayanti and many more. But of late, there is a felt need of upgrading the infrastructure. So now a scheme has been drawn up by UD Engineers and a Detailed Project Report is just ready. After budget provisioning, tenders will be invited.
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Clipping:

Khabar 365 dt 4 Dec 2016

bangla.kolkatalive.in/home/newsdetails/914

Concrete Art

Near MWM

Near Gate 5

Concrete Art, or Engineer's Art. Street installation using scrapped materials like pile caps and discarded hume pipes. Converted into art objects by engineers of PHED.
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Clippings:

Ei Samay dt 3 Dec 2016

MP, dt 3 Dec 2016

Khabar 365 dt 3 Dec 2016

Banglar Mishti Hub

Artist's impression of Mishhti Hub near Gate 3 of Eco Park 

The Board of Hidco in its meeting dated 25 November resolved to approve construction of Banglar Mishti Hub in New Town for promotion of traditional Bengali sweets with particular focus on people flying out from Kolkata.  Renowned sweet shops will be able to display and sell various types of Bangla sweets. The Board noted that many well known brands of Kolkata have shown interest in participating. But the Hub of 10 odd stores will also have space for traditional geo-tagged Bangla sweets such as Shaktigarh's Lyangcha, Bardhaman's Mihidana-Sitabhog, Krishnanagar's Sarbhaja-Sarpuria, Berhampore's Chhanabora etc.

The design was approved by the Board and tenders have been invited.
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Clippings:

Khabar 365 dt 2 Dec 2016

www.toi.in/0LhehZ/a18ag

Meeting on Gitabitan

Draft Brochure of proposed Gitabitan Township in Shantiniketan

We held a long review meeting on Gitabitan Township yesterday. The brochure design was finalised and target dates were given to different wings such as PHED, WBSEDCL, SSDA, HIDCO etc. We decided that although theme and culture would be the theme, all street lights would be LED and there would be Wi Fi hotspots too. We will take the next stage after next Friday.

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Clipping:

Bartaman dt 1 Dec 2016

Designer Wi Fi Hot Spot

Suman Neogy, Debashis Datta, me, Sutanu Kar,
Debapriya Biswas and Arup Ghosh:
29th Nov 2016

Yesterday, we launched the first designer Wi Fi Hot Spot in New Town Kolkata. This is at the first rotary traffic island, near the Bus Stand. The design is made by a team from IIT Kharagpur led by Prof Dr D Pandit. The fabrication of the white metal structure is done by an engineering team led by Suman Neogy, GM, Hidco. The bandwidth / router is provided by NTTIDCO, a joint venture company of Hidco.
The idea is to universalise access to internet, create public spaces that encourages real-life socializing (not only on facebook !: see the number of people already making use of it in the lower picture). We will analyse the responses received from the pilot ptoject and then spread out to 60 odd locations in New Town already identified by the IIT Team
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Clippings:

Khabar 365 st 30 Nov 2016

Anandabazar dt 30 Nov 2016

Green City Mission Launched

Minister Firhad Hakim, me, Talleen Kumar, Pr Secy IT

At Nazrul Tirtha today, Minister Firhad Hakim launched the Green City Mission by watering a plant and inaugurating a website (http://greencitymission.org/GreenCity/ ). All Municipal Chairpersons of the state were invited and many came with their officers. Tallen Kumar, IAS Pr Secy IT, Raju Das, IFS, MD, WBWDCL, Sudip Datta, COO BUIDL, Anindya Chattopadhyay, Special Secretary  Power, Mani Pradhan, Director SUDA, Ms Shakuntala Ghosh, Chairpeerson IGBC (Eastern India), CII etc also spoke. S Mukherjee, JS and I presented on behalf of UD/ Hidco. A proforma was given for benchmarking that will be the baseline for implementing the mission. A WhasApp Group was also to be formed

Meeting on Modern State of the Art Public Digital Library in Kolkata

We had today a meeting in Hidco with Mass Education Department and C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) to explore the possibility of setting up a modern digital library in New Town. Mr Manish Jain, IAS, Principal Secretary, Mass Education and Library Department, Director of Library Services, Col (Retd) A K Nath, Executive Director CDAC, and Sutanu Kar JMD Hidco, Supriya Bagchi, Chief Engineer, all were there. A powerpoint presentation was shown by Library Department. Web based intelligent digital library features were explained. I added that we'd prefer (a) large print reprints of popular books for the senior citizens (b) a stock of rentable Kindle machines with backlit screen for reading in the dark without disturbing sleep of others and with selected book downloaded (c) a coffee shop (d) Wi Fi and (d) on-line membership of specialised web libraries for use by professionals such as law / medicine professionals.

The department will revert soon after doing some further homework.
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Clippings:

Millennium Post dt 28 Nov 2016

Times of India dt 28 Nov 2016

ToI dt 28 Nov 2016

Bartaman dt 28 Nov 2016

Khabar 365 dt 28 Nov 2016

Bhutan Japan

The Buddha Statue that was installed in Suruchi Sangha during last Durga Puja has been installed in Japanese Garden. Suruchi had created a Bhutanese monastry as the Puja Pandel. I took the photo today. The Japanese Garden is slated to open in late December after a Japanese expert comes to see and suggest changes, if any.  In the Japanese Garden, there will be a pagoda, prayer wheels, wishing pool, aromatic walk, rows of Budhdhas, beautiful landscape and lighting, a Japanese restaurant, a souvenir shop and Japanese plants.
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Clipping:

India Today dt 5 Dec 2016
(Simply Kolkata)

PayTM

We introduced PayTM just before Pujas this year. We were lucky to have done so as soon after that (8 Nov) the demonetization hit us. Crowd in Eco Park, Wax Museum etc has dropped but PayTM collections have shown a steep rise as the following data shows:

PayTM Collections (in Rs)

I got the data today from A Saif, Finance Officer. In the morning, I did a review of the performance of the Biswa Bangla Convention Centre being done by L&T. I was told that due to demonetization, many workers were absent for several days and that has an adverse effet on completion time.
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Clippings:

Millennium Post dt 26 Nov 2016

Snehodiya: Senior Citizen Habitat

The Hidco Board met today and approved the Old Age Habitat project called Snehodiya. (See http://principalsecretarysblog.blogspot.in/2016/10/snehodiya.html for earlier post in this blog) The cost implications were analysed and settled as about Rs 25 lakh as security deposit of which 75% of the amount deposited would be refunded to the legal heir of the occupant / applicant on demise / departure. Monthly fee of Rs 16,000 would be payable for all services including food, security, floor-wise attendant etc. 10% discount on single occupancy, all suites being double bedded. Senior Citizens eligible would be 50 years old or more; this is a bit of a deviation from the usual 60 year definition of senior citizens since often a 60+ husband may like to be accompanied by his wife who may not yet be 60.

We decided to open up a helpdesk at Swapna Bhor Community Room (Ground Floor) once the scheme is launched. We plan to involve senior citizen members of Swapna Bhor to man these helpdesks and I have requested Manager Swapna Bhor to seek options from members. 2-6 pm on all days except Monday the help desks manned by seniors would be open to help clarify doubts and sell brochures too, although brochures would be available from banks too.

We will soon have a meeting with bankers to see how they can help applicants. We will also have a networking meet with other senior citizen groups: Dignity Foundation, for example, has already showed an interest in knowing further details.

We plan to launch the scheme in 2016 itself.
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Clippings:

Times of India dt 25 Nov 2016

Green City Mission

A meeting with all Municipalities of the State will be held on 29th November 2016 to discuss about the Green City Mission. Hon'ble Minister Firhad Hakim will preside. Venue: Rabindra Tirtha, New Town.
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Clipping:

toi.in/Gmi6ta8/a18ag

Land plot for police linnes

The Standing Committee of the Cabinet allotted 1.65 acres of land at Action Area III for seting up police lines for the Commissioner of Police Bidhannagar. The Cabinet meeting took place on Monday last
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Clipping:

Khabar 365 dt 23 Nov 2016

http://bangla.kolkatalive.in/home/newsdetails/774

Picnicking

'Lau' in day cottage of Urban Eco Village
Photo taken yesterday

Winters are for Picnics in Bengal. New Town has a fair number of spots designed for picnics, at a very reasonable rate. You just have to book in advance. The five spots are:

1-3: Picnic spots near Upasanasthal, on the bank of a water-way, amidst green lawns / trees. Pay-n-Use Toilets are there, along with kitchen / dining sheds. Close to Tata Medical Centre, opposite bank of Tall Tree Nursery
4-5. Picnic spots at Eco Urban Village with kitchen/dining sheds, huge water body, boating available on request, angling permitted on purchase of ticket, car parking available, four day cottages (see pic above), migratory birds, pay-n-use toilet and a beautiful central akhra for adda (designed by Rupchand Kundu).

With the success of the Puja Parikrama by members of Swapna Bhor (Seniors' Park), we have arranged / planned for a picnic for the members on first week of January to Taki. A bus will be provided by Hidco but all costs including fuel, food etc will be equally shared by members who opt to go. A similar model was followed for the Puja Bhraman with a great deal of success: many members were effusively narrating their experiences to me after the event.

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Clippings:

Khabar 365 dt 22 Nov 2016

Millennium Post dt 22 Nov 2016

Consultative Meeting with Empanelled Architects and Engineers

At Rabindra Tirtha auditorium this afternoon, we held a consultative meeting with all architects and engineers empanelled with NKDA to increase awareness on adopting better design and construction management processes. Attention was drawn to the recent amendment of NKDA Rules that discourage dumping of construction materials on roads. NKDA has also agreed to give a service for removing construction and demolition waste from a site at a given cost per ton.

It was urged upon the participants that dumping of construction materials and C&D Waste on roads, drains, culverts and sewerage pipes were causing severe problems. New procedures for renting vacant land, site construction in phases, use of RMC/ prefabricated beams, use of empty plots with prior permission, real-time monitoring of trucks while unloading sand/bricks, use of polythene sheets on ground to avoid leakage into drains, indicating the rule on good construction practices etc were some of the suggestions that were adopted during the discussions.
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Clippings:

HT dt 21 Nov 2016

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/new-town-development-authority-to-adopt-better-construction-management-process/articleshow/55547241.cms?utm_source=toimobile&utm_medium=Whatsapp&utm_campaign=referral

Smart Water

As if magic ! Water from thin air ! Water fit to drink, pure like bottled water but no water source required.

I saw a demonstration yesterday evening at Nazrul Tirtha garden:

The device, which was of size slightly larger than a typical RO / aquaguard wall mounted water purifier that we often use in offices and home, was laid out at the garden of Nazru Tirtha. Only an electrical plug point was needed. I drank a glass of water: it tasted quite OK.

How can  it produce water without a water input ? See the pic below (I asked them to unscrew and show the machinery inside):

Air is sucked in and cooled to 4 deg C. Water vapour condenses and is collected. It is filtered and stored. A tap in the exterior enables sparkling drinking water to be collected in a glass.

The model shown had a capacity of 15 litres. There are higher capacity ones too, I was told. It works even on low humidity conditions in winter: the sensible practice is to leave it on in the night for the internal reservoir to be filled up.

We have put in a coin operated German Technology Water ATM in Gate 2 of Eco Park. We have collaborated with Rupa Trust to put in three water kiosks in New Town markets / car park. I talked to GM Suman Neogy that we may install this machine (trademarked as Akash Ganga) at Mother's Wax Museum canteen to see how the performance is. Then we can put in few places (Gate 3 Eco Park, Police Outposts, Traffic Signal kiosks, Deer Park, Eco Urban Park etc) in phases.
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Clipping:

Aajkal dt 20 Nov 2016

    

Meditation Exercises to Continue

Upasanasthal at New Town

Weekend meditation / yoga classes are proving to be a great hit.

We started initially for three months. At Upasanasthal, near Immersion Ghat Picnic Spot. On Saturdays and Sundays. Trainer is Ms Aditi De, a resident of New Town. The three months were free and NKDA paid the trainer's honorarium.

After 3 months, participants agreed to share the cost of the trainer. We continued for another 6 months. Each participant paid Rs 100 pm. On an average there are 50 participants. Classes start at 6 am on Saturdays and Sundays.

The 3 month period will be over this month. On popular request, we have decided to extend the classes to another 6 months @ Rs 150 pm so that not only the trainer's cost but also electricity and cleaning charges. So it is now fully viable. We are glad to continue to provide a service that is valued by the residents of New Town on a self-sustaining model basis.