The road to Rajarhat. A committee has been formed to monitor growth around the township. A Telegraph picture

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee?s government is all set to bestow ?industrial township? status on Sector V of Salt Lake.

Chief minister Bhattacharjee has already approved the proposal, which is expected to be cleared in the next meeting of the state cabinet.

The industrial township status will pave the way for the formation of an Industrial Township Authority for Sector V, a body similar to a municipality, comprising 13 members. Members will include representatives from the urban development department, Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) and from the local industries of Sector V.

?This will also mean that the area will get better services and that too, as per the industry?s requirements. Like any other municipality, the authority will be empowered to impose tax and provide municipal services. If they don?t want to provide service themselves, they will be empowered to recruit different agencies for services like drinking water supply, road repairs, lighting and the rest,? said a state government officer. The authority will use funds pooled from taxes and from the local industries, which are members.

According to officers, the move was delayed by over a year because of the delimitation exercise.

For the upcoming New Town at Rajarhat, the government is forming a New Town Authority, a statutory body similar to the CMDA.

?The New Town Authority will render municipal services for the upcoming township at Rajarhat,? said Pradyut Biswas, general manager (administration), Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco).

The government has also formed a committee to put an end to unplanned development around the upcoming Rajarhat township. The New Town Peripheral Area Committee will monitor land use around the township.

In a meeting held on Thursday to chalk out the functions of the committee, 35 mouzas surrounding the township were declared as the ?planning area? for the committee.

?Since this area is not notified under the Town and Country Planning Act, it is very easy to start a project here after obtaining clearances from the local panchayat. We do not want the area around Rajarhat to get congested like Lake Town, Kestopur and Baguiati, which, by virtue of remaining on the fringes of the CMDA area, have remained unplanned,? said a state government officer, who is part of the committee.

Officers of the West Bengal Housing Board, housing department, CMDA, Institute of Wetland Management and Ecological Design and the irrigation department are part of the committee, chaired by retired professor of architecture Moni Chakraborty.