NEW DELHI:Having entered into agreements with various industry bodies to chalk out a plan to promote six upcoming theme townships, the West Bengal government on commenced roadshows in New Delhi to draw investment to these cities.While the Asansol industry-themed city in Barddhaman district will be promoted in association with CII, the Kalyani IT-themed city on the outskirts of Kolkata will be promoted by the state in association with the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industries (BCCI).An innovative concept of senior citizen-themed city in Baruipur in South 24 Parganas district has been taken up where the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) will be playing the role of projecting it as a retired person’s haven.
According to Trinamool Congress’ website, the planned education and health-themed city in Siliguri in the Darjeeling district in north Bengal will be promoted by AHI. The two other cities – the culture-themed based city at Shantiniketan in Birbhum district and the sports-themed city at Dumurjala in Howrah district will be promoted with different industry bodies.”We are trying to project Kalyani as a city of analytics and had advised the government to set up a virtual city on a 50 acre plot,” Ambarish Dasgupta, president designate of BCCI, told IANS.”We are the knowledge partner to the state government in this venture and helping them with ideas to build the city. It is already attracting realtors who are keen to develop Kalyani based on the projected model of the state government,” he added.
These cities are being developed based on the new Township Policy, which encourages developing theme-based townships with special focus on economic activities in the region where these are built as well as provide housing for all within these townships.The policy states that 25 percent of the total land in these townships has to be earmarked for thematic or economic development of the area and another 25 percent of the total residential area has to be reserved for the weaker sections of society.It says that while the projects will be developed on land identified by the government, the developers will have to bid online for bagging the construction tenders.Town Planning norms, municipal laws, environment laws and the National building code has to be followed during construction.
