Road Works in Action Area 3B starts

Yesterday,we had a Bhumi Puja for internal roads of Action Area 3B (beside Rosedale). A picture:

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Few clippings from today's papers:

Mint dated 14 May 2015

Ei Samay dt 14 May 2015

Bartaman dt 14 May 2015

Times of India dt 14 May 2015

Drainage Plans

In the weekly meeting held yesterday, I laid emphasis on cleaning all drains to ensure that no water-logging took place during monsoon. Street 64, Jatragachi, Chinar Park and other places need an annual cleaning. I advised NKDA and PHE engineers to form teams to take preventive action. I also advised interaction with Metro authorities so that drainage system is not blocked by their steel panels and piles.
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Here is a photo for our campaign for Eco Island Cottages:

 

Bridge Deck Casting during Earthquake

The deck slab of third bridge over Bagjola was scheduled to be cast today in one continuous uninterrupted go. This started from early in the morning. However, while 20% of the concrete was already cast, earthquake hit Kolkata and with it the bridge casting work. While no accidents occurred, engineers fear that fault lines may have been embedded into the process that might create problems / cracks later. I advised that NDT (non-destructive testing) may be done after  28 days when the slab would get stable. A photo of the site in the afternoon as the casting was just complete:

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Here are two clippings from today's papers:

Times of India dt 12 May 2015

The Telegraph Metro dt 12 May 2015

Island Cottages

I held a detailed review meeting on the opening of Cafe Ekante and Ekante Sabuj Sathi today evening. Many things still need tying up and we would be fighting against time. We selected few publicity designs. The following is designed by our creative advisor M/s Lintas:

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Here are a few clippings from today's papers:

Khabar 365 dt 11 May 2015

ToI dt 11 May 2015

Times of India dt 11 May 2015

ToI dt 11 May 2015

ToI dt 11 May 2015

New Public Towns, New Private Towns, Smart Towns

The Union Cabinet recently passed the Smart City concept. Although the guidelines have not yet been released formally by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), the press release on behalf of GoI can be seen at thislink >> Smart City  . The starting point is makng of a concept plan. From West Bengal, a concept plan has been drawn for New Town, Kolkata with NISG (National Institute of Smart Governence). The Hidco Board has constituted a one-member committee consisting of Dr Subir Ray, an IT professional and independent member of Hidco Board. I was present in the kick-off meeting. A photo :

Meeting of Committee o Review Smart City Plan of New Town

The smart city plan suggested by NISG falls into a number of interventions that builds upon the already modern city infrastructure existing in New Town. It talks of video based health consultation clinics, use of analytics to automatically analyse video shoots from CCTVs, use of SCADA systems to detect water flow in pipe networks, web based property tax system (already there is the State's only on-line building plan sanction system for New Town), synchronization of land and tax data on the database, sensor-based street light energy conservation modules, digital pen-based complaint systems, underground solid waste management network, drone-based surveillance systems, intelligent public transport system and city-wide high speed Wi Fi coverage.

The state government has also made out a list of 13 towns in the public sector and posed to MoUD for giving the green light to go ahead with subsequent stages. These will be taken forward as soon as the guidelines are published by MoUD.

A private township policy for the state was recently approved by the State Cabinet. Based on this, a number of proposals have been received. These private towns will bring in their own land, will keep 25% housing units for the Economically Poor and keep 25% area for a theme-based non-housing development that will boost economic activities. A number of such proposals have since been received and themes vary from Geriatric Towns to Innovative Knowledge Cities and many in between.

A list of seven greenfield townships have also been announced recently. These would be theme-based towns at Bolpur, Kalyani, Asansol, Dumurjala, Baruipur, Debgram. A kick-off meeting will be held next Wednesday 13th under the Chairmanship of Minister Firhad Hakim for taking these projects forward.
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Here is a clipping from today's paper:

Khabar 365 dt 10 May 2015

Photo Contest on Eco Park

On Tuesday 21st April, on the occasion of the PRSI annual day, we distributed the prizes of a photography competition held some time ago at Eco Park. The contest was organised by PRSI and the theme was : Eco Park. Young citizens were eligible to apply. Here is a prize winning entry. I wish to publish others too in due course:

Prize winning photo by Subhankar Adhikary

Here is a clipping of the event in Nazrul Tirtha where we distributed the prizes:

Telegraph T2 dt 6 May 2015

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Here are a few more clippings:

Ei Samay dt 8 May 2015

Bartaman dt 6 May 2015

Times of India dt 8 May 2015

Urban News Digest

Dolphin Census

Writing this from inside AI022 aircraft at Delhi Airport.
Had 3 meetings today.
First at NIPFP
Second with Cabinet Secretary
Third with Empowered Steering Committee.
...In the last named one, a Dolphin census was approved for West Bengal. Project cost Rs 85 lakhs. Will be done by Forest Department.
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Here are three clippings from today's papers:

Khabar 365 dt 5 May 2015

Ei Samay dt 5 May 2015

Legal Tourism in Kolkata

We had a very fruitful meeting in Nandan today. Hon'ble Justice Ashim Banerjee, Minister Firhad Hakim, Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya, Advocate General Jayanta Mitra, Addl AG, GP, Advocate on Record, Secretary Judicial Department, Secretary Law Department, Amardas Mangalchand, HSA Associates, Fox and Mandal, President Legal Forum, Vice Chancellor NUJS etc participated. It was generally agreed that Alternative Dispute Resolution arena could be set up in New Town but that slightly different treatment needed to be given for Commercial disputes and Social disputes. We, on our part, argued that with its state-of-the-art modern plug-and-play infrastructure in New Town, all tribunals (State and Centre: like State Administrative Tribunal, Land Tribunal, Tax Tribunal, Central Administrative Tribunal), Commissions (Human Rights Commission, Women's Commission, Commissions of Enquiry), Other Courts (Family Courts, Consumer Courts, Legal Aid), Commercial Courts (Arbitration, mediation and conciliation centres) could be all brought in together in the Legal Hub in New Town. It was highlighted that the National Green Tribunal was already operating from New Town and that the Judicial Academy was nearing completion in New Town. A photo:

Meeting on Legal Hub at Nandan Conference Hall on 4 May 2015

Members commented that in London and Singapore, Legal Tourism was gaining ground as disputes between parties from different countries chose to settle their differences in these modern hubs. There was no reason why Kolkata couldn't make one either.

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Here are three clippings from today's papers:

Times of India dt 4 May 2015

Ei Samay dt 4 May 2015

Times of India dt 4 May 2015

Tribal Art in Eco Park

We are decorating Entry Plaza of Gate 4 with tribal art. We decided few weeks ago in consultation with Mr Gopal Poddar of Karigar Hat to have Warli Paintings on the walls which are a rich terracotta colour. The paintings started and I give below two photographs taken on my iPhone yesterday.

The Wikipedia says this about Warli art: "..Their extremely rudimentary wall paintings use a very basic graphic vocabulary: a circle, a triangle and a square. Their paintings were monosyllabic. The circle and triangle come from their observation of nature, the circle representing the sun and the moon, the triangle derived from mountains and pointed trees. Only the square seems to obey a different logic and seems to be a human invention, indicating a sacred enclosure or a piece of land.." [More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warli ]

We have also decided to use sheet metal of Bastar, Chhattisgarh to make a gate at Entry Plaza. I had seen one such beautiful gate at Raipur's Urja Park some months ago and liked it a lot.

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Here are two clippings from today's papers:

Ei Samay dt 3 May 2015

Khabar 365 dt 3 May 2015

Meeting on Legal Hub on Monday 4th May

It was in the breakaway session of the Financial Service Sector Committee meeting held on 8th January 2015 during Global Bengal Business Summit that  it was recommended that to encourage investments it is necessary to have quick business dispute redressal mechanism and to take advantage of the amendment of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 Kolkata may take early start by way of setting up a Kolkata International Arbitration Centre, along the line of the Delhi / Mumbai Centre. It was also decided to expand the scope of Financial Hub at New Town by way of encouraging the legal firms to set up their offices within the area identified as Financial and Legal Hub. It may be mentioned that already the Kolkata Bench of the National Green Tribunal is operating out of Finance Centre Building at New Town, the Green Tribunal overlooking the greens of Eco Park. The Home Department has taken up one floor at the Finance Centre for setting up a Judicial Commission of Inquiry. The State Judicial Academy building in New Town is also nearing completion. The Company Law Board, the State Consumer Affairs Department and West Bengal Public Service Commission have expressed their intention to set up units in New Town. The seeds of developing Central Business District of New Town into a Legal Hub, therefore, have already been sown.

To take these ideas forward, there will be a meeting on Monday the 4th May 2015 at 4pm at Nandan (first floor conference hall). Hon'ble Justice Asuim Banerjee, Minister Firhad Hakim, Minister Chandrima Bhattachrya, Chief Secretry Sanjy Mitra will address. Many legal luminaries have been invited including Hon'ble Advocate General, President Bar Council and many others.

Here is a photo of the invitation card:

Market Conference at Delhi

Today, I attended a "Market Conference" organised by the NMCG (National Mission Clean Ganga). This was held at Stein Auditorium of India Habitat Centre. More than 200 private sector technology companies participated, each projecting its prime product and engineering solutions. Foreign companies were also there. Some spoke of their modular Sewage Treatment solutions, some others spoke of bio-remediation, while few also talked of bio-toilets and innovative solutions such as use of motor boats to churn the waters to increase the BOD level through innovation. NMCG Mission Director seemed also to call for bank-plantation though NGOs and river surface cleaning by floating collecting machines.

I, on my part, thanked Union Minister Ms Uma Bharati for agreeing in principle to sanction our Project for Gangasagar (Project Cost Rs 361 cr) : the project report was submitted yesterday. I also spoke of the possibility of approaching NRIs at France and Holland for Chandannagar and Bandel. I also mentioned about taking up projects near Belur Math and Dakshineswar. I added that besides engineering interventions, we would need riverbank population to be involved and treat them as stakeholders. Union Minister seemed to agree in principle in her speech.

A selfie on my mobile:

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I also met Secretary Ministry of Urban Development at Nirman Bhavan. I formally handed him over a copy of the concept plan on Smart City for New Town as drawn up by NISG (National Institute of Smart Governance). I also invited him to visit the state.

Swapno Bhor: A Seniors'Park

We are just about ready for an inauguration of the Seniors' Park which has been named "Swapna Bhor". Two computer aided photos of the actual site:

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Here is a clipping from today's paper:

Ei Samay dt 27 April 2015

New Eco Carts

We procured three new eight-seat eco-carts yesterday. Two will be used by the police for security in Eco Park. One will be used at Eco-island. A photo:

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Here is a clipping from today's paper:

Cafe Ekante : Enter by Boat

On one end of Eco Park, there is the Banglar Hat where the best of Bengal handicrafts are on sale in a great ambiance amidst display of Kolkata's iconic hand-rickshaw . Opposite to Eco Park, there is Mother's Wax Museum where a lot of Bengal's icons are photographed every day by hundreds of visitors. Now at the Eco Island within Eco Park, we are setting up a stylized Bengali food joint, a joint where you can enter only by the boat (remember the first scenes of Enter the Dragon :) ) . Overlooking the 100 acre huge lake, a spectacular view will greet people as they savour the awesome 360 degree view while tasting a fine selection of the best in Banglar food.

Named Cafe Ekante, you can reach it from Eco Park by a special country boat. Boat ride ticket is deducted from your food bill at Cafe Ekante. You get choice of beverages (Chilled Gandharaj Lebur Sharbat with Mint being the star !), munchies (mochar chop, moglai paratha, even jhal muri and more), main course (desi murgir jhol, dab chingri, Koi machher Ganga Jamuna and many more), and dessert (star: nolen gurer ice cream ). AGM(Tourism) Tirtha Sadhu and his team is busy finalising the menu. We are planning to open by May.

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These appeared in today's papers:

Times of India dt 23 April 2015

Hindustan Times dt 23 April 2015

Net Metered Solar Energy in Nagarayan

Nagarayan Bhavan in Salt Lake houses the Department of Urban Development. Installation of Solar Panels on its rooftop is just complete. I just went to see it with Mr Gurupada Patra, Executive Engineer and others. The solar energy produced is converted to AC and stepped up to electricity grid voltage and pumped into the grid. The energy so put in acts as a kind of decentralised generator and so saves drawal of power from thermal power plants. The energy pumped in is measured through a special Net-Meter and there is reduction in electricity bill by the amount actually pumped in in the day. A photo on my mobile:

Roof-Top Solar Panels connected to the grid through net- metering

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Here are a few clippings:

Khabar 365 dt 16 Ap 15

Khabar 365 dt 17 April 2015

Ei Samay dt 17 April 2015

New Town Clock Tower Plaza inaugurated

The New Town Clock Tower Plaza was inaugurated today by Justice Asim Banerjee, in presence of Saurav Das IAS Principal Secretary (both of whom stay in New Town). The 2-day Barshabaran Utsav finished today at 9.30 pm with great enthusiasm and participation. A photo of the clockplaza taken today afternoon:

Talent Search was concluded at the Plaza amidst great enthusiasm

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A clipping from today's paper:

Times of India dt 15 April 2015