One of his points will make residents smile, but the other could make them frown.

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Monday called for the development of Salt Lake?s infrastructure but shot down the civic body?s proposal to allow residents to add an additional floor to their buildings.

At a meeting with Bidhannagar Municipality chairman Biswajiban Majumdar, the chief minister expressed reservations about vertical extension of buildings on the grounds that the infrastructure would not be able to sustain the increased load of the population.

Of the 12,500 plots in the township, buildings have come up on 10,000. The population is around two lakh and the infrastructure already under strain.

During Dilip Gupta?s tenure as chairman, the civic body had planned to allow construction of one room on the roof of each residential building for accommodating domestic helps.

The proposal had been sent to the urban development department and the CPM had made it an issue in the municipal poll campaign.

The civic authorities had written to the government that rules prohibiting construction of additional floors be relaxed, considering the changed economic reality and the municipality?s need to generate more revenues.

?But with chief minister Bhattacharjee opposing the proposal, this has to be shelved. The chief minister fears that the infrastructure may collapse if additional floors are allowed,? an official said.

Bhattacharjee, however, expressed ?keen interest? in various development projects of the township.

?He wanted to know about the status of the projects and the funds required to complete them,? chairman Majumdar said. ?He is very interested in Rabindra Bhavan, the proposed cultural centre.?

The urban development department has agreed to hand over 26 cottahs in DD block to the municipality for the centre, which will be modelled on Nandan.

Bhattacharjee also promised to extend all help for setting up a commercial complex at the international bus terminus in Karunamoyee.

The state government had recently announced a grant of Rs 50 lakh for road repairs, though the Opposition Trinamul Congress alleged that the amount was inadequate.