Tea Lounge

I visited the site of the Tea Lounge being built in Eco Park near Tea Garden (in between Gates 3 and 4). The structure is taking shape. The resemblance with the designed drawing of Architects Dulal Mukherjee Associates was quite striking, I thought. Hope to make it operational by October this year.

Actual Photo on my iPhone at Site on 18 May 2015

Designed drawing of Tea Lounge

* * *

Here are a few clippings:

Khabar 365 dt 18 May 2015

Ei Samay dt 18 May 2015

Khabar 365 dt 18 May 2015

Times of India dt 18 May 2015

ToI dt 18 May 2015

Trial of Mist Garden

While not fully operational, the mist garden had a trial today. It will require another week to be operational. But still there was a bit of Darjeeling today evening at Eco Park's Rain Forest. A photo:

17 May 2015

* * *
Here is a clipping:

Khabar 365 dt 17 May 2015

Smart Solid Waste Collection

In the Smart City Plan prepared by NISG (National Institute of Smart Governance) for New Town, there has been a plan for the first ever Smart Solid Waste Collection through underground network. It is called "Underground Vacuum Systems for Sustainable Waste Handling".

The idea is that while water supply, waste water, power cables, optical fibre cables, telephone cables etc all go through an underground network system, solid waste is still collected through trucks from residential zones from vats or other common storage points. These vats / storage points are often unhygienic and roadside dustbins remain unemptied and dirty especially during the day after a morning clearance.

 The smart solution for solid waste collection consists of laying underground pipes through which air is sucked out like a vacuum cleaner for transporting wastes from source to destination. There is also a system of compaction so that from an underground end-point, the compacted output is taken away by trucks in tanker-like containers without any spillage. These networks can connect to apartment chutes as also from public dustbins. Trucks thus have to travel much less, releasing traffic load from city roads. The Eco Park is getting more and more visitors and food / packing wastes overflow in peak winter days so that cleaning vats have had to enter twice a day even last season. This issue will be more pronounced in coming years. So an underground solid waste collection system is very much suited for Eco Park.

We had a discussion with an expert engineer from Bangalore today and learnt that such an underground collection system is in operation for long at Wembley City area in London, Stockholm, and many other places of the world. On a smaller scale,  GIFT city in Ahmedabad is also trying it out. We decided to publish a Request for Information from turnkey solution providers for Eco Park as a pilot scheme, A photo taken in Hidco today:

CE NKDA, Mr A R Shine, Expert from Bangalore, me, CEO NKDA,
GM Hidco and EE NKDA at Hidco Bhavan on 16 May 2015

  * * *
Here is a clipping:

Ei Samay dt 16 May 2015

Cafe Ekante, Ekante Cottage, Coal Bhavan and Mizoram Bhavan in New Town

Cafe Ekante was formally launched this evening. Minister Firhad Hakim, MLA Sujit Bose, various media-persons and senior officers of Hidco / NKDA had their first dinner at Cafe Ekante. The ambiance was great, the food was awesome and the experience was unforgettable. Here is a pictur of the hoarding graphic that we started putting up in many place from today:

At 2 pm today, Hon'ble CM inaugurated the new Coal India Bhavan at New Town. The Bhavan is located beside Nazrul Tirtha. A photo from my iPhone:

 At 4 pm, CM Mizoram inaugurated Mizoram House at New Town. This is located opposit to Rabindra Tirtha. The programme was mostly in Mizo language. A photo with a selfie inset:

* * *
Here are a few clippings:

Khabar 365 dt 15 May 2015

Salt Lake Telegraph dt 15 May 2015

Road Works in Action Area 3B starts

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

 * * *
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.
* * *
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:

***
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:

***
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.
* * *
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

* * *
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.
* * *
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.

* * *
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.

* * *
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: