‘No district will be able to compare with Baruipur’

Express news service, Posted: Mar 06, 2008 at 0147 hrs

Kolkata, March 5: The gesture shown by Baruipur residents to hand over their lands for setting up a new administrative centre and the proposed township in South 24 Parganas has made Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee happy since it comes at a time when every land acquisition by the state government runs into a controversy.

"We are in talks with the Centre for setting up seven to eight education hubs in the township. Four of them have already been approved," Bhattacharjee said at the foundation laying ceremony of the new district headquarters of South 24 Parganas here. At present, the district headquarters of the district is at Alipore.

"In future, Baruipur will be the finest centre of education and no other district can compare with it," the chief minister added.

He said that the work has already begun for setting up of the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research there along with three dedicated research centres for biodiversity, oceanology and a nanotechnology.

The foundation stone for the EM Bypass connector was also laid. The extension will now connect Kamalgazi to Padmapukur. Both these projects will be executed by the KMDA.

The new location will have the offices of the district magistrate, superintendent of police, district courts and jails and Zila Parishad.

Besides, the district hospital, which is now in Bangur, will also be shifted here. Of the 500 acres of land acquired for the new township, the administrative centre will occupy 143 acres.

"Funds to the tune of Rs 53 crore have been sanctioned under the JNNURM for the new four-lane extension which will form a dedicated bus route from Ultadanga to Baruipur," said state urban developmenxt minister Ashok Bhattacharya, who was also present on the occasion.

The function was attended by state land and land reforms minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah, irrigation and waterways minister Subhas Naskar, Sunderbans Development Affairs minister Kanti Ganguly , MP Sujan Chakrabarty and officials of KMDA.

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.

South 24 Parganas District Headquarters shift to Baruipur drives road extension

 THE TELEGRAPH, Issue Date: Thursday , November 20 , 2008

DEBASISH CHATTOPADHYAY

The Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) has taken up a scheme to build a 12-km road from Garia to Baruipur as part of the plan to shift the district headquarters of South 24-Parganas. The four-lane road, which will link the EM Bypass to the proposed site of the district headquarters in Baruipur, will be laid in two phases. The headquarters is now based in Alipore. In the first phase, the road will extend from Garia to Kamalgazi, and in the next phase up to Baruipur. Land acquisition and alignment work for the road are complete. Local CPM parliamentarian Sujan Chakraborty, the CPM legislator from Baruipur, Rahul Ghosh, and senior officials of the CMDA surveyed the area before the road plan was finalised. The people’s representatives and the CMDA officials also decided to build six bridges across Tolly’s Nullah. The project cost for the road has been estimated at Rs 54 crore, which will be provided by the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission Scheme under its Ganga Action Plan. “The new road will be vital after the headquarters is shifted to Baruipur,” said Chakraborty. The shift will see a spurt in construction in the small district town. “A healthcare hub and a technical college are among the immediate priorities. Once these projects and many more come up, traffic to and from Baruipur will increase manifold. The road has been planned keeping this in mind,” Chakraborty added. The thoroughfare will run on both sides of Tolly’s Nullah. The stretches along the banks will be beautified. “We also have plans to construct at least six bridges across Tolly’s Nullah in phases,” he added. The state environment department and the Union ministry of environment and forests have sanctioned Rs 24 crore for building the bridges and the beautification project. Chunar De, the chief engineer of the CMDA’s Ganga Action Plan sector, said: “We hope to finish work before the monsoon if everything goes according to plan.” P.B.Nag, the general secretary of Development Employees Joint Action Committee, said the project had been delayed by a year because of land acquisition problems.