Former chief minister Jyoti Basu and Swami Jitatmananda at the foundation stone-laying ceremony at New Town on Monday. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

Monday evening saw former chief minister Jyoti Basu joining the pre-election foundation stone-laying spree in Rajarhat New Town.

The project, Rosedale Garden, is touted to be the city?s first exclusive habitat for NRIs. The 16.32-acre, Rs 410-crore estate, to come up in Action Area III in 33 months, will house 800-plus families.

Santosh Mukherjee, managing director, Rosedale Developers Private Limited, said: ?The project aims to satisfy the NRI diaspora by consolidating the benefits of both worlds. Rosedale Garden will be a modern estate, where one will find all facilities and amenities on a par with western standards.? It will comprise apartments, duplex and bungalows.

A business centre, an art gallery, a medical unit with ambulatory services, a nine-hole golf course and an old-age home are the other features. ?Since the project is aimed at NRIs, we plan to address every situation they may face here,? said Mukherjee.

The developers have appointed Bengal Shrachi Housing Development Limited as the execution partner and are planning to appoint architects from the United States and Singapore.

Addressing the gathering, Basu said: ?Rosedale Garden seems to be an impressive project, and it?s good to see ?probashi? Bengalis are returning to their his roots. I hope this is the beginning, and the next time they will bring along their technology to help our youth.?

Housing and public health engineering minister Goutam Deb promised that the access road ? a 10-lane thoroughfare ? and the lanes would be ready in time.

The minister admitted that with the state?s economy growing at an impressive rate, it?s becoming difficult to allot land. ?Even 50,000 acres do not seem enough at times,? said the minister.

US consul-general Henry V. Jardine said the project was a reflection of the changes taking place in the state.

?Rosedale can also be seen as a positive sign of the growing relationship between India and the United States. However issues such as services, products, shops and vendors will have to be looked into as well, so that they match the quality found in the US,? said the diplomat.