Commencement of Work for Mishti Hub

Coconut break this morning: at parking area near Gate 3 of Eco Park

Work on Banglar Mishti Hub started today with coconut breaking. It is at the 2-wheeler parking near Gate 4. There will be ten shops for branded famous sweets while there would be space for ethnic well-known geo-tagged specialities like Langcha of Shaktigarh, Sitabhog-Mihidana of Burdwan, Chhanabora of Berhampur and so on. The idea is to provide a 24x7 outlet for tourists to carry the famous sweets for their family and friends while on their way out of Kolkata through Airport.

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Clippings:

Bartaman dt 31 Jan 2017

Dainik Statesman dt 31 Jan 2017

Ei Samay dt 31 Jan 2017

Millennium Post dt 31 Jan 2017

ToI dt 31 Jan 2017

Pratidin dt 31 Jan 2017

Times of India dt 31 Jan 2017

Second Water ATM at Eco Park

With German Technology, we have installed a Water ATM at Gate 2 of Eco Park. This is hugely successful and there are long queues almost every day, and we've had to post security staff to control queue. Rs 2 coin for one litre of chilled or normal temperature pure water. You bring your own bottle.

During a review recently, I got a feedback that there is a demand for another such Water ATM near Gate 3. Yesterday I went with Suman Neogy and Atanu Palodhi to decide a spot near the Children's Park and Seven Wonders in the making. We would be doing this with a sponsor who wants to test-check his equipment in real life at no cost to us. They will be shown the site today.

Meanwhile, M/s Rupa has installed three water kiosks at two markets of New Town and Tata Medical Centre's car park area run by NKDA. Also, the technical report of the air-to-water magic water machine has been submitted by PHE engineers and results from the Central Testing Laboratory shows that its quality is many many times purer / better than aquaguard filtered usual water that we often drink.
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Clippings:

Millennium Post dt 30 Jan 2017

Millennium Post dt 30 Jan 2017

Asian Age dt 30 Jan 2017

Road Map for Happiness at New Town

Priyadarshi Pattanayak, me, Manas Mandal at Hidco

Few days back, Prof Priyadarshi Pattanayak, Head, Deparrtment of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Kharagpur and Co-ordinator for Rekhi Centre of Excellence for the Science of Happiness and Manas Mandal, Visiting Professor, IIT Kgp came to Hidco for a discussion on the road map for happiness at New Town. We decided to include the Ranbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Design of IIT Kgp too. We decided to have an inception workshop in New Town in March 2017.

The study of happiness in new Town would involve doing surveys and preparing of an assessment report on existing happiness, subjective well-being and quality of life in New Town. It would give guidelines for improving the happiness levels at New Town. It would also deal with feasibility studies of smart technologies for enhancing quality of life.
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Clippings:

Bartaman dt 29 Jan 2017

Millennium Post dt 29 Jan 2017

Republic Day 2017

At Hidco

At NKDA

At Eco Park

Republic Day Cycle Rally from Eco Park on New Cycle Track

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Clipping:

Khabar 365 dt 28 Jan 2017

Sculipture Garden to open in FY 2016-17

With artists and engineers and officers at Sculpture Garden, Eco Park: The paint on the gate was still wet !

I visited the Sculpture Garden project recently and reviewed the progress with all artists, sculptors, engineers and officers. We decided that all efforts would be taken to complete the project by February so that it could be opened by March 2017.

Here is a write-up on the project (courtesy Anup Motilal, Curator RT, who is making the scripts for the artifacts:
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Sculpture Garden at Eco Park

A public sculpture garden accessible to all has been planned to be set up at Eco Park which will be an outdoor garden dedicated to the presentation of sculpture. The idea of this sculpture garden is to portray the important land marks of the history of Bengal ranging from Shri Chaitanya Mahapravu of the medieval Bengal to Rabindranath Tagore of the 19th Century & 20th Century focusing on the appearance of a host of remarkable Bengali individuals in different walks of life and their profound, abundant and vital contribution to the society and the country as a whole. The panels of sculpture starts with the history of medieval renaissance in Bengal led by Shri Chaitanya and ends with Rabindranath Tagore’s ideals of education and foundation of Visva Bharati.
The concept of 12 panels (Murals) are enumerated below:
Shri Chaitanya, the middle age renaissance of Bengal
Battle of Plassey
Raja Ramohan Roy & Renaissance of Bengal
Anandamath – Bankimchandra, The awakening of Bengal of India
Swami Vivekananada-Call of Youth and his activities
Santal Rebellion
The Indigo Movement
Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose –Azad Hind Fauz and his revolution
Shri Arobindo – Revolutionary converted to a Rishi
Lalan Fakir to Kazi Nazrul Islam- a different spirit of revolution and culture
Rabindranath Tagore- The Visva Bharati Movement
Satyajit Ray and his world of films

Other than the 12 panels (Murals) as above there are 52 portraits which starts with Shri Chaitanya Mahapravu and ends with Begum Rokeya. This list include the host of remarkable individuals who through their activities in different walks of life proved to be the makers of the history of Bengal, especially in the 19th century.

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Clippings:

Millennium Post dt 26 Jan 2017

US Consul General Visits Eco Park

H.E. Craig Halls, US Consul General in Kolkata and me at Eco Park today

A team of school children visited Eco Park today in an event that was flagged of by US Consul General of Kolkata, Mr Craig Hall. The children went to the Butterfly Garden and its interpretation centre too. Mr Hall appreciated the efforts of the government in giving importance to greening along with development. I remarked that the vision of Hon'ble CM has resulted in this creation and that the admiration will encourage us to go further
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Clipping:

Millennium Post dt 25 Jan 2017

Smart Garden, Vertical and Using IoT (Internet of Things)

Mr J Bhaduri (extreme right) making the presentation at Hidco

Mr J Bhaduri, MD Capacloud, came to Hidco Bhavan today morning. He had made a brief presentation on 20th Jan at BGBS's Start Up Session. He made a presentation stating how vertical gardens may be done on urban walls, using water retaining fibres, controlled drip irrigation with micro-nutrients. He showed how by measuring electrolytic conductivity and water content and feeding to the Internet Cloud, using the IoT (Internet of Things) concept, it is possible to monitor the health of the vertical garden remotely from anywhere around the world. A special electrical water valve has been developed by them to release water to the roots when required and of the correct quantity, using remote control.

He was given a conducted tour of certain areas of Eco Park, MWM and Eco Urban Village. He agreed to do a small pilot project at Gate 2 of Eco Park, in the first instance, for demonstration. ( For more information on this, see Smart Vertical Garden )
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Clippings:

Times of India dt 24 Jan 2017

Times of Indi dt 24 Jan 2017

Khabar 365 dt 24 Jan 2017

Millennium Post dt 24 Jan 2017

Kolkata Book Fair's Hidco Stall to focus on Theme Cities, Convention Centre

I just visited the venue of the Kolkata Book Fair at Milan Mela Ground with JMD Gopal Ghosh, Suman Neogy GM and Kritiibas Nayek, GM along with Booksellers Guild officials and agency representatives. We have decided to have a considerably larger stall for Hidco. We have decided to emphasise that Kolkata will be a great Exhibition and Convention Destination once the Biswa Bangla Convention Centre on the 10 acre plot opens later this year. Even the huge open-to-sky grounds outside Gate 1 of Eco Park are very attractive exhibition destinations and huge international Mines and Machinery, or Foundry Equipment (a new one is going start from 25th January again here) often take place here even now. So much so, that we are planning to engage a panel of specialised air-conditioned hanger fabricators who will put these up as required on a modular basis with least damage to the paved grounds. We have recently given a space to NTESC who have placed transformers and panels so that organisers can get bulk power at short notice and at convenient locations. We also plan to build executive toilets that can be made use of by the organisers. This will be in addition to the staff / workers' toilets that are already there. Reservations are already pouring in months/ years in advance both for the Convention Centre as well the open exhibition grounds.

We will, in the Kolkata Book Fair stall highlight that 2.5, 4 and 6 kottah plots will be available for allotment soon in Geetabitan Theme City near Shantiniketan. 5 other theme cities will also be highlighted.
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Clippings:

Asian Age dt 23 Jan 2017

Bartaman dt 23 Jan 2017

Cycle Tracks

Action Area 1, Cycle Track

We have taken up a programme of slowly implementing the development of paved footpaths and cycle tracks with occasional street furniture in all of New Town. Two areas have been chosen: one, in Action Area 1A, from first rotary or Bus Terminus to Box bridge and two, between gates one to four near Eco Park, on one side. There will be cycle tracks and footpath, interspersed with vegetation in between. The cycle track and footpaths merge with house level lanes by a sloping ramp rather than a steep step so that cycles / wheelchairs have no difficulty. Signages, lights and road markings will be done shortly. I am also planning to hold a cycling event in February. The cycle tracks, incidentally, are being designed by IIT Kharagpur where Dr Debapratim Pandit with his team of young researchers and students have done a survey, and also designed a cycle sharing system. This sharing scheme will also be taken up in due course.

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Clippings:

Bartaman dt 22 Jan 2017

Anandabazar dt 22 Jan 207

Anandabazar dt 22 Jan 2017

Millennium Post dt 22 Jan 2017

Aajkal dt 22 Jan 2017

Dainik Statesman dt 22 Jan 2017

Future City : Proceedings released in BGBS

At Hall 4 of BGBS today morning, a booklet containing workshop proceedings of the one held on 11 Jan 2017 titled "Future Cities: Prospects and Challenges" was released. The booklet lays down the basic opinions by experts from various fields.

CMD National Insurance Company Mr K.Sanath Kumar while releasing the booklet mentioned that the Arbitration Hub being set up by Hidco would attract re-insurance business and that therefore the Finance Hub would get synergised if steps are taken to give some tax benefits for drawing international reinsurance business.

Partner of Khaitan & Co Mr Raj Panchmatia said that careful drafting of the rules, in consultation with national and international experts, could make Kolkata a great Hub because of its locational advantage vis-a-vis South East Asia.

Partner of Fox and Mandal Mr Debanjan Mandal told that 30% of Singapore's arbitrations were between Indian companies. Off stage, he agreed to volunteer to help draft the rules.

Minister Firhad Hakim inspecting the New Town Convetion Centre
Model that was unveiled at BGBS 2017

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Clipping:

Bartaman dt 21 Jan 17

Review of Progress of State Convention Centre

Yesterday, I reviewed the progress of the Biswa Bangla Convention Centre with engineers of Hidco and top officers of L&T, including Mr R Candran who'd flown in from Chennai.  It seems that while substantial progress would be made by March, the final completion would require June 2017. We decided on this schedule after agreeing to take "sign-off" from all agencies working, bringing in huge crane platforms for false ceiling works, increasing the availability of masons and technicians, concentrating on day-to-day project management review and increasing the stock of shuttering. For quicker decisions, we also agreed to appoint from Hidco an on-site consultant designer-architect who'd be given a site office by L&T for on-the-spot decisions.

At BGBS event at Milan Mela today, at Hall 4, we installed a lighted 3D model of the State Convention Centre. Here is a picture on my mobile:

3D Model of New Town Convention Centre at Hall 4, BGBS 2017, 20 Jan 2017

Sanjit Sharma and Suman Neogy of Hidco as well as Dulal Mukherjee have taken a lot of effort to make this model displayed at the Hall 4 on time - getting passes, tables, light points, transportation, co-ordination etc all takes time and effort. I also give below a link that shows a walk-though video of the New Town Convention Centre and one that will be displayed tomorrow at BGBS:
https://youtu.be/qKp5L2niUCA

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Clippings:

Salt Lake Telegraph dt 20 Jan 2017 (Above and below)

Ei Samay dt 20 Jan 2017