To further lessen the population load on Calcutta, the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government will build yet another satellite township — this one in the Sonarpur-Baruipur area, on the southern fringes of the city.

About 25 km from the city, the township will be set up by the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA). A working group, led by the CMDA’s additional director, physical planning unit, P.K. Mitra, was formed last week.

The group will conduct surveys to ascertain the requirements of a modern township and submit a “concept report” within two months.

The infrastructure for the township will be planned keeping in mind the possible developments in the region in the next 20 years.

The survey will also gauge the growth in population and vehicles in and around the area in the next two decades.

CMDA officials said it was part of the government’s policy to build satellite townships around Calcutta to ease some of the city’s population load.

“The Rajarhat New Town project is underway. Townships have also been planned in Dankuni and Howrah. Calcutta is bursting at its seams and we need more and more townships on its fringes,” said a CMDA official.

The township in west Howrah is being set up in collaboration with the Indonesia-based Salim group.

Even though the size of the township, the project cost and the population it can bear are yet to be worked out, it’s expected to be quite sprawling, as it will cover areas under Sonarpur-Rajpur Municipality, Baruipur Municipality, panchayats under the Sonarpur Panchayat Samity, Baruipur Panchayat Samity, and Bhangar-I and Bhangar-II Panchayat Samitys.

Officials said another reason for planning a township in the area is to give effect to the proposal of shifting the headquarters of South 24-Parganas from Alipore to Baruipur.

It’s learnt that the government had planned about a decade ago to build a township in Baruipur. But the idea had to be shelved because water from deep tubewells in the arsenic-contaminated zone was unfit for consumption.

“Now, there’s a water treatment plant of the public health engineering department in Budge Budge. We only have to augment its supply and lay pipelines up to the Sonarpur-Baruipur belt,” an official said.

The working group will also look for ways to develop new areas and upgrade the existing settlement patterns, transportation linkages, drainage, sewerage, solid waste disposal system and other environmental aspects.

“Once we get the report, we’ll draw up a detailed project report and fix our priorities. We will also have to hold meetings with other departments that will be associated with us in building the township,” a CMDA official said.