Car Parking Lot Near Tata Medical Centre started

The Tata Medical Centre of New Town is making an extension block in the compound of its own building. The new building will have extra beds as well as operation theatre and laboratories. This has resulted in shortage of car parking space and many have to park their vehicles on the road. To ease the parking problem, NKDA is building a car park adjacent to the Tata Medical Centre. I inspected the site today. A photo taken today morning:

Car Parking being built near Tata Medical Centre

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NKDA is collecting an average of Rs 10,000 per day as car parking fees every day. This is being facilitated by hand held devices where the time of entry, time of exit and fee payable as per prevalent rate is collected. Few photos:

Parking bill

Parking Rate near Axis Mall, New Town

Handheld device

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Few Clippings:

Hindustan Times dt 13 August 2015

Khabar 365 dt 13 August 2015

Times of India dt 13 Aug 2015

Sangbad Pratidin dt 13 Aug 2015

Second Campus of Presidency t be built by Hidco

I received a letter from Vice Chancellor of Presidency University entrusting the construction of the second campus of Presidency to Hidco. The campus will be located on a 10 acre plot adjoining the site of the State Convention Centre now under construction. The campus is to be built in three phases of which the first phase alone will cost Rs 118 crores. I held a meeting with the technical team of Hidco in analysing the concept. On receipt of the DPR, we will call bids.

Here is an artist's impression of the second campus:

Artist's impression of second campus of Presidency

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Here are a few clippings:

Khabar 365 dt 11 August 2015

Times of India dt 11 Aug 2015

Integration of KIT with KMDA

The Boards of KIT and KMDA are the same. Both are entities of the UD Department, both are responsible for improvement of Kolkata though the jurisdiction of KMDA is much larger than that of KIT whose area of operation is coterminous with that of KMC. KIT is located in Poddar Court in Central Kolkata while KMDA is in Salt Lake. To optimise performance in delivery of public services and to reduce multiplicity of organisations, today I met CEO KMDA S Gupta, CEO KIT Dr Archana, Secretary KIT Asok Roy and Joint Secretary UD K SenGupta in a formal conference and decided to take his up in three stages : (a) Explore possibility of co-location by making KIT and KMDA share space at Unnayan Bhavan, Salt Lake (b) Seek options for willing employees of KIT to KMDA as per vacancy existing in KMDA (c) Form a one-man Committee to suggest ways and means to achieve actual merger.
The name of the one-member Committee would be decided by MIC (UD) upon his return to Kolkata.

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Here are a few clippings:

Hindustan Times dt 10 August 2015

Ei Samay dt 10 Aug 2015

ToI dt 10 Aug 2015
(Top and Below)

Ei Samay dt 10 Aug 2015

8 Mobile Apps for New Town

    In a bid to make New Town smarter, we plan to introduce Mobile Apps. We already have Biswa Bangla Wi Fi along the Main Arterial Road (Biswa Bangla Sarani). I believe that more and more people are shifting from the desktop/ laptop/ website era to smartphone-based mobile apps mostly because you are never away from your mobile phone - even on the street or in the traffic jam - and smart phones are becoming affordable by the day.
We therefore have frozen our requirements of an 11-faceted mobile Apps and published an Expression of Interest yesterday. The scope is as follows:
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1.  1.     Address Locator

  Application will allow user to search for any particular location by hint of the address with auto complete functionality,• User will be able to view the driving direction to the searched location. • User will also be to search any utilities (like Hospital, Police Station, Grocery Shop, Bill payment, Malls / shopping Complexes, Movie Theatre, Hotels etc) using the search section.

2.    2.    Ekante Suite

 Ekante suite will be consisting of ‘Ekante Café’ & ‘Ekanta Cottage’. . Application will also have an option to book ‘Ekante Café’ & ‘Ekante Cottage’.

3.       3. Places of Interest in Newtown

-    The objective of ‘Places of Interest’ is to make people aware about the popular locations of Newtown. The list of such locations will appear in the application both in LIST & MAP view, 

-.       Each place of interest will have audio script respectively. It will become accessible, when user will be physically present in that respective location. •

-.       Eco Park section will be briefly described in this section (under ‘Places of Interest’) like Activities, Thematic Areas, Conveniences, Upcoming attractions, Announcements etc. •

-.    

4.         4. Events

-.       All the current & upcoming Events of Newtown will be listed into the mobile application. Events will be listed by locations. Any user will be able to search any events by ‘Name’, ‘Nearby Location’. 

5.         5. Digital Library 

                              The idea of Digital library is to facilitate to the user to view the available books of Seniors' Library. However as of now books can be purchased with ‘Cash on Delivery’ option, where post order placement HIDCO official will deliver the books to the user.

6.       6.  Audio Tour 

                         The mobile application will have an option to be the Audio guide of any particular place. This will be accessible to user, only when user will be present in that said location. Each location will have different signage no. plate positioned on every site. Mobile application will ask user to enter to the signage no. from mobi1e.

c.  

    

              7. Transport Schedule Mobile application should be compatible to showcase the bus schedules of Newtwon area only. The details of bus schedule will include of below information. • Route no. of the BUS • Schedule Arrival Time • Schedule Time for Reaching Destination  

             8. Feedback of Citizen Mobile application will allow the user to post their feedbacks & suggest new ideas for betterment of Newtown  area.The 

7.        

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        Here are few clippings:

Khabar 365 dt 8 Aug 2015

Khabar 365 dt 9 Aug 2015

Khabar 365 dt 9 Aug 2015

Ei Samay dy 9 Aug 2015

Telemedicine at Seniors. Park

We are toying with an idea to have a television linked to a remote consulting doctor for consultation at Seniors' Park shortly
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Here are a few clippings:

Telegraph dt 7 Aug 2015

Khabar 365 dt 7 Aug 2015
(Above and below)

Hindustan Times dt 7 August 2015

Pratidin dt 7 Aug 2015

Pratidin dated 7 August 2015

Invitation Card

Nazrul Tirtha now in BookMyShow

See:

Nazrul_Tirtha_in_BookMyShow

(Later)

6th August 2015, 4pm,Nazrul Tirtha

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Here is a clipping from today's Times of India:

Cafe Ekante is now at Zomato too

See Zomato  for Cafe Ekante.

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Few clippings:

Times of India dt 5 Aug 2015

Khabar 365 dt 5 Aug 2015

Khabar 365 dt 5 August 2015

Afghanistan in New Town

ASSOCHAM brought a 2-member Afghan delegation today to Hidco to see a possible plot in the Diplomatic Enclave in Action Area 2 for their consulate / economic mission office. A photo taken today afternoon:

Sayed Mujtaba Ahmadi, Economic Counselor, Afghanistan, me,
companion to Mr Ahmdi, Debamalya, Prasanta Bhattacharya:
4 August 2015, Hidco Bhavan

Nazrul Tirtha Regular Film Shows start from 7th August

I had a series of meetings followed by site inspection on the 4-shows-a-day film shows to begin from Friday 7th August. Before that, on Thursday 6th August at around 3 pm, there will be a premier show of "Basanta Ese Gechhe". I took a picture of the poster standee displayed at Nazrul Tirtha this afternoon:

Four film shows a day at
Nazrul Tirtha from Friday

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Here are few clippings from today's papers:

Top and bottom: ToI dt
3 Aug 2015

ToI dt 3 August 2015

ToI dt 3 Aug 2015

Ei Samay dt 3 Aug 2015

Ei Samay dt 3 Aug 2015

Wipro to Start Boundary Wall on 50 acre plot

In his letter to Hidco dated 30th July 2015, Cdr Vijay Kr Agarwal, GM, Wipro has submitted engineering drawings for construction of boundary wall on their 50 acre plot in Action Area 3 of New Town Kolkata.
We intend to give the permission within a day.
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Here is a clipping:

Khabar 365 dt 2 Aug 2015

Eco Park in Brazil

Returned to India: writing this in Delhi Airport, waiting to Board the 2.15 pm flight. On checking the mailbox, I find that there is a request from a Brazilian TV Team that wants to take a video shoot in Eco Park for their show. I am, of course, happy to allow. The Brazilian TV show is called "O Mundo Segundo Os Brasileiros" (The World According to the Brazilian).
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(Later, on 2 Aug afternoon):

The Brazilian photographer with us (Tirtha Sadhu, me, Partho Ghosh
and Suman Neogy) at Eco Island on Sunday 2nd Aug 2015

  

Day 4: Royal Court of Justice

Today I, along with Rishikesh Chanda of British Deputy High Commission went to the Royal Court of Justice's new building at Rolls Building. This was commissioned in 2011 to decongest the High Court of London. We had an intensive visit of the premises that has two parts: the offices of law firms on the one hand and commercial courts, consultation rooms, court staff office and court rooms on the other hand. There are faclities for inter room video conferences as well as remote videos for witnesses etc located anywhere else. All court proceedings are audio recorded and archived with real-time annotations reg who spoke etc.In the six floors, the fourth floor is not accessible to the public as judges sit there. The ground floor has security screening facilities with x-rays and DFMDs as well as counters to file documents, pay fees etc. I inquired about the financial viability and came to know of the revenue sources: the whole matter is self sustaining. To my mind, the new premises in the New Town Financial and Legal Hub will be fashioned on this model. The preliminary EOI on financial modelling should be out within next month.
Two pictures:

With Robin Bolton of HM Courts and Tribunal
Services

Rolls Building, Fetter Lane
London EC4A 1NL

We will start our return journey to Kolkata shortly today.

Day 3 London: Digital Waterfall and City of UK

In the morning, I along with Rishikesh Chanda of British Dy High Commission went around various sites of London where Jason Bruges, MoU partner had made art installations. The unique point in their creative works is that these are technologically driven. Here are two pictures taken this morning at Olympic Village (near Westfield Mall) :

Digital Fountain: there is no water

L-R: Jason Bruges, me, Richard Howarth:
digital fountain

Plaque on another installation

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In the afternoon, we went to the City of London and met Mr Giles French and Peter Simons, We invited the Lord Mayor of the City of London to come to BGBS 2016 on 7-8 January 2015 at Kolkata. We explained the manner in which the Kolkata Financial Hub had been progressing with almost 20 institutional investment. We also invited them to participate and also hold a workshop during that visit. They gave their version on how best to transform the Financial Hub into a bustling activity zone.

Few photos:

L-R: Giles French, me, Peter Simons

Guildhall, the 800 year old building, houses the
City of London: the Financial Centre

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Few clippings:

Ajkaal dt 30 July 2015

Khabar 365 dt 29 July 2015