Calcutta Police will build multi-storeyed apartment blocks at its police stations to ease the housing problems of its personnel.

The housing proposal, which is a part of its modernisation programme, was recently cleared by the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government.

?We are planning to build multi-storeyed estates to solve the housing problem of our men,? said joint commissioner of police (administration) Kuldiep Singh. ?The estates will house a police station on the first floor and the rest of the floors will be allotted to the personnel, who can stay with their families. This will ensure the availability of officers round the clock.?

This year, the authorities are focussing on only Watgunje police station.

?In a meeting with our senior officers we have decided to build a 10-storeyed housing estate after demolishing Watgunje police station, on the lines of Karaya police station. As the expenditure will be around Rs 8 to 10 crore, our target will be to build two such estates every year,? Singh said.

So far this year, the Calcutta Police has received Rs 18 crore from the Centre for modernising the force. As part of the megacity scheme, the Centre has been releasing funds to Calcutta Police over the past two years.

Besides, every year the state government also contributes 25 per cent of the total grant sanctioned by the Centre.

?This year, we have spent a major portion of the grant on buying vehicles and arms. The proposal of building housing estates was also included in the modernisation programme. It was sanctioned immediately by the government,? a senior officer said.

Joint commissioner Singh explained that modernisation will be incomplete unless all police departments are computerised. He said with the inter-linking of 48 police stations to a common server in Lalbazar, the officers now can extend assistance anywhere within seconds.

?The officers will just have to type a message on their computers and send them. People can even lodge their complaints on our websites and officers can help them immediately,? he pointed out.