Rs 400-crore township to come up in Baruipur

Express news service, Posted: Feb 27, 2008 at 0114 hrs

Kolkata, February 26: A new township that will house administrative offices for South 24 Parganas district will come up in the Baruipur area at a cost Rs 400 crore. Minister for Urban Development Asok Bhattacharya announced this here on Tuesday.

The minister said the initiative is being taken for effective administration of the district, whose administrative headquarters, at present, are located at Alipore in Kolkata.

For the construction of the new headquarters within the district, the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) has already acquired 500 acres of land in the Baruipur area.

The new offices will be connected to Kolkata by the Eastern Metropolitan Kamalgazi-Padmapukur by-pass connector.

As per the proposed development plan, the developed areas will have open spaces, a central park, a waterbody, roads, drains, water supply, drains, sewerage and electricity facilities, offices of the government and the Zilla Parishad, police station, jail, district hospital and residence space for officers.

“There was no opposition to land acquisition for the project and the entire land is in the KMDA’s possession. The land development work is expected to start in first week of April, 2008, and the project of development of new district headquarters is to be completed by December 2010,” an official statement released by the department said.

“The foundation for the project will be laid on March 5 by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. While around 120 acres of the total land will be used for the construction of institution buildings, another 100 acres of land will be made available to the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC),” Bhattacharya said.