Tag: New Town

New Town set to be a ‘Smarter’ City, thanks to WB CM

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New Town is all set to be a ‘Smarter’ City, thanks to the initiative taken up by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The West Bengal Chief Minister had paved the way behind this initiative during her recent visit to London. The Future City Catapult, an UK-based group had signed MoU with the West Bengal Government. The representatives of the British firm are already in the city.

Water supply, solid waste management, environment, IT aided services and other such amenities are the basics of the Smart City concept. The State wants to make New Town an educational hub besides the destination for health services, IT services and financial services. This is the primary reason for which the assistance of the UK-based organization is being taken.

The State Government now desires to build a Futurist City at New Town and is making all efforts to make this possible.

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.

Rajarhat to get education hub

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An education hub is coming up at Rajarhat New Town. At least 30 different educational institutes have been allotted land in the township, covering more than 150 acres, to set up their campuses in different parts of the township.

While Presidency University , St Xavier’s College and Rabindra Bharati University are developing their second campuses here, institutes like Aliah University and Techno India have already set up their campuses and started operations.

Officials said that talks are on with several other institutes and more land could be allotted for their campuses. Campuses of several government and private institutes like Netaji Subhas Open University , Ganguly Educational Society , Bhawanipor Gujrati Education Society, IILM Foundation, WBSEDCL Staff Training Centre, State Government Vocational Institute, State Social Welfare School and others are also coming up in the township.

Authorities have been allotting land -from two acres to 10 acres -to different institutes through e-tenders.

Besides, the authorities have also earmarked a 20-acre plot to set up a government medical college and hospital. Tenders will be floated again. Cities across the world like Boston and Cambridge revolve around a big education hub where worldclass universities along with schools and colleges are located.

India`s first floating solar panel to be inaugurated at Rajarhat on Jan 5

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The country will get its first floating solar power plant on January 5. Only Japan and Australia have developed floating solar power plants so far.

The unit, which will generate 10KW solar power every day, will be inaugurated at Rajarhat New Town.

State Power Minister Manish Gupta will inaugurate the floating solar power plant installed on a water body near Eco Park in New Town.

The floating solar power plant has been jointly set up by the Arka-Ignou Community College of Renewable Energy, headed by solar power expert S P Gon Chaudhuri, and the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA).

The power that will be put into the grid through marine cables will light up several areas in Eco Park and its surroundings.