WHAT AILS THE FOOD-AND-FUN STREET? Park Street awash in festive light and colour

The city’s brightest B-team is putting on its thinking cap — and walking its talk — for the cause of Calcutta’s most popular street.

In a wake-up call for the street that never sleeps, a group of students from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) has been enlisted by the Society for Park Street Rejuvenation Kolkata (SPARK) to plot its “upgrade and improvement”.

“We are working on the renewal of Park Street but we did not have enough data to put forward proposals, so we approached IIM Calcutta to do an in-depth study,” said Monica Khosla Bhargava of SPARK.

In September, seven groups of IIM students took a walk down Park Street for a feel of the place — for work, not play. Then, they turned the focus on individual aspects of Calcutta’s fun-and-food street.

“There is no better way to learn than working on a live project. The Park Street case is the group project for this year’s urban management course,” said Annapurna Shaw, a professor at IIM Calcutta.

The “live” project will address street economy, activity patterns, demography, basic services like water supply, street lighting, solid waste management, drainage, land-use patterns, parks and waterbodies, the impact of festivals and more.

Preliminary pointers include improving the street walks and making them more attractive, removing banks, using it more for fine-dining spaces, giving incentives to big brands to set up shop, particularly beyond Mullick Bazaar.

“With the IT industry growing, there will be people from other cities coming in and they are used to the kind of brands that will want to set up shop in Park Street given its significance. The street needs to provide the space and feel for that kind of growth,” said an IIM student of the urban management course.

The students hit the street — named Mother Teresa Sarani but called Park Street — with maps, talking to restaurant owners, traders, visitors and residents. They look at “who lives in the area and in what ways the demographic composition is changing”, “who is on the street and why they are there” , as well as “night and day patterns”.

“What we need is data and recommendations for the urbanisation of Park Street, keeping its heritage in mind,” said Khosla. The IIM study will be presented at Oxford Bookstore on Saturday.