New Town Business Club was formally inaugurated on Tuesday but the swimming pools, that had opened in April, have already gone through their first round of damage and repairs.
“This club will be a benchmark for New Town,” said urban development minister Firhad Hakim at the inauguration ceremony. He and information technology minister Bratya Basu inaugurated the centre, located on a three-acre plot in New Town’s AE Block, near Home Town. The club is being managed by New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA). “This is the first club of this scale being run by the government,” said NKDA chairman Debashis Sen.
But the three swimming pools on the club premises had been opened to public in April itself. Within the first three months of operations, they had developed cracks, had chunks falling off and a weak rung in a pool’s ladder even left a swimmer injured. But the pools have been repaired before the inauguration and declared fit to swim.
In deep water
“Earlier this month I saw a swimmer trying to climb out of the pool by stepping on the steel ladder underwater but one of its rungs gave away under his weight! The man fell back and the broken rung left a deep gash on his foot,” said a swimmer, who did not wish to be named.
Another swimmer said that after the ladder gave way, chunks of the wall on the edges of the pool started crumbling too. “The pool doesn’t have a railing at its edges for swimmers to hold and rest so we generally caught our breath by holding the walls lining the edges of the pool. One day when I was resting, a chunk of the wall broke free!” said a member asking not to be named. “What sort of facilities are these where brand new pools fall apart?”
NKDA charges Rs 2,000 per season (April to September) for a 30-minute slot and the club has three swimming pools. The largest one — six-laned and 25m long — is for men. It is 4.5-ft deep at the shallow end and 6.5-ft deep at the other. It has a dedicated filtration unit with three iron filters and four pumps to keep the water circulating and prevent stagnation. It also has a balancing tank where chlorine would be added from time to time. NKDA also conducts regular checks on the water using specialised kits to measure the Ph levels of the water.
Women and children have a smaller pool each to themselves but the latter had too had been showing cracks.
“The first pool to show damages was the children’s one,” said Ashok Bhattacharya, a swimmer and resident of Labony Estate. “Its edges had chunks falling off and had to be shut down for repairs,” he said.
Members say they complained to the club authorities and were assured that action would be taken but the pools were breaking faster than they could be repaired. “Since the kids’ and women’s pools are connected both were shut for repairs. But no sooner did they reopen than the men’s pool started falling apart. Even that got closed down thereafter,” said Saswat Barenyo, a resident of Action Area I.
Damage control
NKDA chairman Debashis Sen admitted receiving complaints from the swimmers. “But we started repair work immediately. This pool has become very popular among residents and we want to ensure good service,” Sen said.
.jpg)
Another NKDA official said the damages left him baffled. “This is a landmark club in this part of the city and we had carefully supervised its building. The fact that the pool’s walls were giving away was unprecedented,” the official said.
Swimmers are wondering if syndicates, ubiquitous in New Town, are to blame. “I won’t be surprised if the contractor engaged in building the pools was forced to buy inferior quality goods from syndicates. If good quality materials were used then this could never have happened,” said Rajarshi Choudhury, a swimmer from Salt Lake’s BL Block.
Other features
The club has a tennis court, situated in NKDA’s Bidhan Sishu Udyan adjacent to the club complex. It has an artificial turf built as per the guidelines of International Tennis Federation (ITF) that governs the sport.
A basketball court has come up adjacent to the tennis court and it even hosted a tournament recently.
Apart from sporting activities, there is a restaurant on the second floor of the main building, an auditorium and several guest rooms. Dart boards have been installed and a gym is on the cards. “We want to give members a complete clubbing experience,” said Sen.
Membership forms are now being distributed and members need to pay Rs 30,000 plus taxes for three years. Another Rs 3,000 per year is payable as maintenance charge.
Which are the best and worst swimming pools in the Salt Lake-New Town area?
Write to saltlake@abpmail.com or The Telegraph Salt Lake,
6, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta 700001