UK India Business Council

Yesterday, I met Mr Richard Heald, Chief Executive of Uk India Business Council at my HIDCO office. He talked about an Innovation Seminar to be held in London in October: I said I'd be interested in knowing more about it. I also said that I needed technological inputs for smart, intelligent and green city as I'd like to position New Town as such. He said he'd revert with more thoughts.
The British Dy High Commissioner Mt Sanjay Wadvani and Mr Chanda were also there. Deepak Gupta of UD Department handled the protocol and took this picture:

I was also told by Mr Debashis Gharai of Sakalbela - with whom I'd spoken some time back - that there'd been a story on the design competition for a local market in New Town. Here is the clipping:

Earthquake and Digha Beach Festival Logo

A digital artist I know has created the following logo for the Digha Beach Festival. Here it is:

. In the morning yesterday, I'd asked Special Engineer to inspect our Housing Estates in Salt Lake for possible damages. I spoke to Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority and Jaigaon Development Authority too and called for reports after inspections. I also met a group of residents of New Town Rajarhat to report any damage to the high-rises of Rajarhat due to earthquake. Suman Chakrabarti of Times of India asked me about response of UD Department to the recent earthquake. Here is a report that appeared in today's Times of India:

Digha Beach Festival on December 9-12, 2011: DSDA Website

I held a long meeting at Digha yesterday witth all stakeholders to set the agenda for holding the Digha Beach Festival in December. The idea was to give everybody a target to kick-start short-term plans for transforming Digha-Shankarpur-Mondarmoni-Tajpur into a major national tourist destination. The main idea is to bring in quality improvements.
After some detailed discussions, we decided to have it on 9th Dec (Friday) to 11th Dec (Monday). There will be Sea Food Festival, Bratachari, Beach Volley Ball, Bangla Band, Eco-quiz and other events.
***
I launched the website of Digha Sankarpur Development Aithority. Its address is:
http://www.dsda.gov.in/
This also contains a new facility of on-line booking for Saikatabas.
DSDA and M/s Telmac did a great job in putting this up in a short time: we hope to make it operational after the Pujas when the renovation of Saikatabas will be over.
***
Here is a news article on Clean Ganga that appeared in today's Anandabazar:

Biometric Cards for HIDCO

Amal Sarkar of Bartaman spoke to me yesterday. He has written the following article.

Yokohama and Kolkata

In an earlier post I had mentioned about Yokohama. Yesterday, Mr Toru Hashimoto from the International Technical Cooperation Division from the City of Yokohama came and gave a presentation to us at HIDCO Bhavan. Here is a picture.

Along with Mr Hashimoto, Mr M Numahata, Japanese Consul in Kolkata was also there. Commissioner KMC, CEO KMDA and HIDCO and UD officers were there.
We will have a wrap up today morning.

There have been few articles in the press. Here are a few links:-

Times of India:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Japanese-touch-to-riverfront-project/articleshow/9989076.cms

Pratidin:

http://epratidin.in/Details.aspx?id=9995&boxid=2161624

Bartamaan

http://bartamanpatrika.com/content/kolkata.htm

Address Locator ....2

I read this article at Under Secretary's chamber at Writers' Buildings today:

Design Competition for Local Market in Rajarhat New Town: Win Up to Rs 60, 000

In today's Times of India, we have published an advertisement asking for designs from Architects through a competition. There will be two plots and two separate competitions, both are located in Action Area I of New Town.
I have Delhi Haat or Dakshinapan in mind. But local open markets here are very small - about 20 kottahs or so. This is meant for getting daily groceries, vegetable, fish etc : we are not looking at glass facaded shopping malls. We want fresh open friendly neighbourhood market but with a bit of creativity added, a bit of originality.
Hence the competition and call from young and talented architects.
Winner will get Rs 50,000 reward for one, and Rs 60,000 for the other.
Valid entries will get Rs 5,000 each - unless the number is too large.
Here is the ad:

Address Locator Kiosks: Expression of Interest

We want to instal static address locator in New Town and Salt Lake to enable tourists to find out addresses quickly. Here is a notice inviting Expression of Interest that appeared in today's Times ofIndia and Hindusthan Times:

EOI published for Saikatabas, Digha

We are trying to modernise Saikatabas at Digha professionally. Advertisements appeared today in Times of India:

Rules of Business Amended: Notification Issued by Chief Secretary: HIDCO with UD

Yesterday I received the fax copy of the notification dated 8.9.2011 signed by Chief Secretary, Govt of West Bengal stating that the Rules of Business of the Government has been amended so as to bring HIDCO and all matters relating to Rajarhat township within the schedule of Urban Development Department.
* * *
Minister of Urban Development Mr Firhad Hakim made a visit to HIDCO yesterday. We made a powerpoint presentation and few issues facing it today. This was covered by the media and I put a clipping that appeared in Bartamaan today.

Lord Mayor of City of London to Kolkata on 13th Oct

Yesterday, Mr. Sanjay Wadvani, British Deputy High Commissioner in Kolkata met me at my office of UD at Nagarayan, Salt Lake. He talked about the visit of Lord Mayor of the City of London to Kolkata on 12-13th October. There will be a seminar in co-ordination with the Urban Development Department on 13th Oct. The topic is likely to be Urban Renewal and Financial Inclusion. In the afternoon, an interaction on the proposed Financial Hub in Rajarhat New Town will be organised.
I learnt that the Mayor of London (elected politician) is different than the Lord Mayor of the City of London (a businessman with rank of an MP/minister looking after "one square mile" of London's financial district.
**
Here's a photo with Mr Sanjay Wadvani at our new 5th floor office at Nagarayan:

Digha Utsav in December

Here is a news item that appears in today's Anandabazar.

I am planning to hold a meeting of DSDA at Digha on Saturday 17th Sep so that we can form the Organising Committee.

Rabindra Tirtha in New Town

Half a dozen or so agencies have applied for against the Expression of Interest. The bid document will be ready by today. I have entrusted one General Manager (Engineering) whole-time exclusively to handle this project.
Here is an article that appeared in The Statesman recently (on 31st Aug 2011):

Digha Beautification

Here is an article that appeared in the press:

Dedicated water supply for New Town, Rajarhat

After a longish meeting with water experts from all wings of the government and elsewhere, I decided to have a dedicated raw water pipeline for the New Town, Rajarhat.
Here is a link to a story:
http://epratidin.in/Details.aspx?id=9755&boxid=3315671
 

Digha Beach Festival in December 9, 2011

I met Tourism Secretary Mr Raghabendra Singh last Tuesday and proposed that we could have a beach festival in October, a water sports festival in December and a Sea Food Festival in January - in and around Digha-Sankarpur-Mandarmoni. We finally agreed to converge all on a week or fortnight starting on December 9, 2011. It is a Friday, a day before full moon. Yesterday, I got a confirmation from the Tourism Department.
I will hold a meeting tomorrow to introduce a theme to Digha Tourism. Bright Blue & Yellow (I am thinking of Van Gogh' ), a logo ('let's go to digha' ) and a signature tune. Let's see.

PMU for HIDCO

In Telegraph, Times of India etc, HIDCO has published a notice inviting Expression of Interest for engagement of a Project Management Unit.
Here is the link:
http://wbhidcoltd.com/notice/pmu.html

Expression of Interest for Rabindra Tirtha Published today

See Times of India, for example.

Convention Centre at New Town, Rajarhat

I met Mr Prasoon Mukherjee of Universal who is a 50% partner of a Company that is going to make a Convention Centre. I was told that work would start on 2nd October 2011. Here is a picture of the proposed centre:

Meeting with Roberto Zagha

I met Mr Roberto Zagha, Country Director of World Bank in India yesterday in Kolkata. We discussed about the possibility of reviving the Secondary Cities Project and also co-financing of the Kolkata Riverfront Development Project. We also talked of looking at Kolkata's rejuvenation anew. I was interested to know that the FAR of New York was 11.4 while we have in Indian cities FARs around 2 or so: thus the cities were "chapati cities", to quote Mr Zagha.