Tag: Firhad Hakim

Mamata’s Bihar visit a protest against authoritarian attitude of Centre: Trinamool

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Stating that the party would fight to “strengthen the federal structure” in the country, TMC on Thursday said that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s attendance at the oath-taking ceremony of Nitish Kumar on Friday would be as a mark of “protest against authoritarian attitude of the Centre”.

“Our chief minister is going there (Bihar) to fight against intolerance and mark her protest against the authoritarian attitude of the Centre.

“Trinamool Congress will fight in favour of strengthening the federal structure and secular fabric of our country,” said party leader and state urban development minister Firhad Hakim.

Mamata Banerjee on Thursday left for Patna to take take part in Kumar’s swearing-in on Friday. She had congratulated Nitish Kumar over Twitter and termed the victory of the grand alliance as the defeat of “intolerance”.

Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) leader and the Bihar Chief Minister designate, and Mamata Banerjee had spoken over the phone after the Bihar Assembly elections results were announced with the former thanking the TMC chief for supporting the grand alliance in Bihar in its fight against BJP.

State Govt passes Bill to boost investment

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The West Bengal Municipal (fourth amendment) Bill 2015 was passed in the Assembly on Monday where the time period of tax benefit to Information Technology Industry and Information Technology Enabled Services (IT and ITes) companies has been extended from five years to 11 years.

Unit Area Assessment system of valuation for the purpose of property tax will also be introduced at the industrial townships of Nabadiganta, Kalyani, Bantala and Durgapur, it was said.

Previously, the time frame for providing tax benefit for the IT and ITES companies was five years. Now, six more years has been extended to the IT and ITES companies for providing tax to the state government.

While placing the Bill, Firhad Hakim, state urban development and municipal affairs minister said that the decision has been taken in order to give some benefit to IT and ITES companies so that they could set up their unit in the state.

The Bill mentions that the final base unit area value of land comprising building or any vacant land or covered space of building or portion thereof, shall remain in force for a period of five years from the date of publication of the scheme, if not directed by the state government otherwise.

The Bill also mentions the time period and modalities of exemption from payment of the property tax on any land or building, which is exclusively used for Information Technology Industry or Information Technology Enabled Services.

Also, they can enjoy higher floor area ratio, the Bill mentioned. It also mentions that the unit area assessment system of valuation for the purpose of property tax will be included in industrial townships.

Bengal Govt plans to launch mono rail in New Town

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The state government is planning to introduce mono rail in New Town and to connect it with Metro Rail to improve transport system in the city, said State Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim.

The minister said this while announcing that Kolkata has joined the league of “C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group”, which is a global network of cities tackling climate change and driving urban action that reduces both green house gas emission and climate risks.

He said that this was a huge opportunity for the city and would open new avenues for Kolkata to develop it as a modern city.

He added that since this was a huge opportunity to interact with experts from other global cities to upgrade civic facilities, the state government would focus more on upgrading the city’s transport system.

“The state government is keen to revive the entire transport system. As part of this initiative we are planning to introduce mono rail in Salta Lake Sector-V and New Town. The idea is to connect the mono rail with the Metro Rail so that people can enjoy a world class transport system,” the minister said.

“The planning is there and we are in the process of implementing the project. We have to wait a little bit as the population of New Town is yet to achieve its potential. For the survival of such projects there needs to be enough users,” Firhad Hakim added.

 

The image is a representative one

WB CM forms 9-member committee to free land of closed industrial units

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The Mamata Banerjee government has formed a group of ministers (GoM) to find out ways to free land of closed industrial units in areas near Calcutta so that fresh investments can be invited.

“The nine-member GoM will look into different aspects of the closed industries in the state. But the primary objective will be to free land of closed industrial units and invite fresh investments on the prime plots,” a minister told reporters.

Senior officials said the chief minister was trying to pave the way for new industries before the Assembly elections next year as she could face questions on the lack of investments in Bengal.

The committee would include Dr Amit Mitra (Finance & Industries), Firhad Hakim (Urban Development), Partha Chatterjee (Education), Chandrima Bhattacharya (Law), Manish Gupta (Power), Subrata Mukherjee (Panchayat), Malay Ghatak (Labour), Purnendu Bose (Agriculture) and Sudarshan Ghosh Dastidar (Environment).

The government had recently freed nearly 200 acres in Nadia’s Kalyani from 11 closed units.

Proposals flooding in for investments in Theme Cities: Urban Development Minister

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More than 50 organisations from foreign countries and other states of India are giving proposals for investments for the six Theme City projects in Bengal.

Investment proposals have also been received for IT and Financial Hubs. State Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim disclosed the information after returning from the International Urban Development Summit held at Istanbul.

At the Summit, the State Urban Development Minister termed himself as the ‘marketing representative’ of Bengal and invited the investors to come to Bengal and feel the warmth and make investments. He pointed out to them that India is one of the few places in Asia which has huge opportunities for making investments and Bengal is the best State to invest into.

The State Urban Development Minister gave various examples of the theme township projects as well as the good governance of the stable Government. He said that the investors have showed major interest on Baruipur theme township project which is going to be connected to the extended EM Bypass soon.

Canary Wharf model for business hub in Rajarhat

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Tall shimmering skycrapers of London’s business district may soon be seen in the heart of Kolkata. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to recreate London’s financial district -Canary Wharf -in Rajarhat.

According to the CM, the financial hub which is already under construction will look like the one in London.

UK India Business Council, WB CM’s hosts in the UK, is planning to open an office in the Kolkata financial district to rope in more investments into Bengal.

The CM said she has decided to give UKIBC land to build their office here.

It is learnt that top executives of J P Morgan and HSBC also met the chief minister and finance minister Amit Mitra to inquire about the hub over the last two days in London.

Spread over some 35.76 acres, the hub has already roped in 11 banks and financial institutions like the NIC, UBI, UCOBank, SBI, Union Bank, Bank of Baroda, Allahabad Bank, Corporation Bank, Sriram Credit and two state government institutions, the West Bengal Financial Corporation and the West Bengal Infrastructure Development Corporation.

“It’s the second such hub in the country after the one at Bandra Kurla in Mumbai,” said Firhad Hakim, urban development minister of Bengal. “Of the 23 plots in the financial hub, 11 have already been booked,” he added.

The Bengal government has already successfully organized three roadshows in Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi to market the New Town financial hub.

Banks, stock exchanges, commodity broking houses, mutual fund companies having an average annual turnover of Rs 500 crore for the last three financial years ending March 31, 2014 are eligible to express their interest in booking plots within the hub.

Kolkata’s longest flyover to be inaugurated before Durga Puja

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The state government is planning to inaugurate the Parama Island flyover on ‘Mahalaya’, which falls on October 12 this year.

“Work is on in full swing. After the opening of the flyover, work of setting up a flank to join the flyover with the AJC Bose road flyover at Park Circus junction will start,” state urban development minister said at Nabanna on Monday.

The Park Circus to Parama Island flyover, once thrown open to traffic, will be the city’s longest flyover. While the main flyover will be 4.5 km long, the total length, including the ramps and flanks, will be 9.2 km.

The minister also said the state government will write to the Centre on the matter of not listing any flyover project in the newly formed Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT).

“We have voiced our concerns on the AMRUT scheme. None of the JNNURM-listed flyover projects are being included in the AMRUT. The state government is taking up the matter and will write to the Centre to include the flyover projects under the AMRUT scheme,” he said.

Bengal cabinet clears deck for developing six theme cities

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West Bengal cabinet on Friday cleared the deck for developing six modern cities in the state.

Speaking to the press after the cabinet meeting, state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Minister Firhad Hakim said the location for six modern cities had already been finalised. The Cabinet had even named all the six proposed cities according to choice and importance of the place, he said adding they would have modern facilities for decent living.

Naming the theme cities

Speaking about the smart cities, Hakim said one would come up over 85 acres at Dabgram near Siliguri and would be called ‘Teesta’ after the name of a major river in north Bengal. Another city would come up near Bolpur in Birbhum district over 127 acres and christened ‘Gitabitan’ after a popular compilation of songs by Rabindranath Tagore.

A third city over 50 acres would come up near the twin industrial towns of Asansol-Durgapur covering Churulia, birth place of the poet Kazi Nazrul Islam. It would be named ‘Agnibina’, after the name of a collection of poems by the rebel poet. One more city would come up near Kalyani, developed by erstwhile chief minister Bidhan Chandra Roy, in Nadia district over 50 acres and would be known as ‘Samriddhi’.

Another city, which is yet to be named, would come up at Dumurjala in neighbouring Howrah district over 50 acres. The sixth smart city would come up at Baruipur in the southern outskirt of the metropolis over 86 acres and would be named after the famed Bengal matinee idol Uttam Kumar, the minister said.

Allotment of land

In all cases the state government has adequate land and would be developed by the state urban development department, Hakim said. Besides, the state government would also develop some thematic private township over land within ceiling at different places in the state.

The themes could range from knowledge, sports and IT and the townships would be developed by various wings of the department like HIDCO and KMDA, he said.

Hakim hoped that the projects would bring in huge investment and create a lot of employment opportunity. In all cases there would be 25 per cent reservations for the economically weaker sections.

KMC expedites Garden Reach water supply project

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Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) have joined hands to overhaul the water supply system in south Kolkata and three municipal areas bordering Garden Reach.

When complete, the project will end water woes in areas like Garden Reach, Kalighat, Behala, Tollygunge, Jadavpur and Mahestala, Pujali and Budge Budge municipalities. Though it involves huge investment, Mayor Sovan Chatterjee is determined to complete it by the end of this year.

Sovan Chatterjee has proposed to lay four dedicated water lines. After completion of the process, these pipes will ensure more water for residents once the augmentation of the Garden Reach plant is complete. These lines will be laid for Behala, Garden Reach, Pujali and Maheshtala.

The Mayor on Monday held a meeting with municipal affairs minister Firhad Hakim and officials of KMDA, KMC and the land department. He has asked municipal commissioner Khalil Ahmed to wrap up the ongoing project at Garden Reach by October 31.

The new plant with a capacity of supplying 50 million gallon water will greatly solve the water scarcity in south Kolkata.

Let us keep politics out of governance: Derek O’Brien

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Statement by Derek O’Brien, National Spokesperson and Chief Whip in Rajya Sabha:

West Bengal Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim had a cordial, purposive meeting with the Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu. Many specific projects of Bengal were discussed. Funding timelines were also discussed.

However, little disappointed that Mr Naidu took political potshots at State Government before leaving Kolkata.

Please, let us keep politics out of governance.