The state government wants to auction 16 vacant plots in Salt Lake and allow residential buildings there.

All the plots to be auctioned are five cottahs or less in size. The state urban development department has identified about 100 plots in Salt Lake, but wants to auction only 16 in the first phase.

According to sources, the auction is part of a plan to monetise properties lying idle with the state government.

The proposal is now pending with the cabinet. If the cabinet gives its nod, it will be the first time in several years that the government will sell land in the township for new residential buildings.

The state has not sold a vacant plot to anyone for a new residential building in many years, said an official.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has asked officials to identify encroachments on government properties.

“We will auction these plots. Only residential buildings will be allowed on them. We have sent the proposal to the cabinet for its approval. We will auction multiple plots in phases as and when we receive permission from the state government,” Firhad Hakim, state urban development minister, told Metro.

“We have identified several plots,” Hakim added.

An official of the department said the proposal was to sell the plots to individuals and not to housing cooperatives. “The number of floors will depend on what the municipal building rules permit in Salt Lake,” said the
official.

A drive through Salt Lake will show several plots where the urban development department has hung boards announcing that the land belongs to the department.

The board also mentions the plot number.

The identification of vacant plots started in 2019, and the decision to auction them and raise money came much later. Some plots were vacant when the department put up boards and boundary walls around them, and some had been encroached on.

Many vacant plots are being used as nurseries, garages and for parking vehicles. Some people, without any authorisation, were also charging parking fees.

Monetising land has been a strategy of the state to raise revenue.

The Mamata Banerjee government has decided to sell 254 cottahs, or 4.2 acres, of prime land just opposite the Alipore zoo. The land was allotted to the forest department 12 years ago to set up a quarantine centre for animals brought from other states or countries before housing them in the Alipore Zoological Garden.

The quarantine centre never came up as the zoo continues to use the isolation unit on its premises.

The state government has also allowed the conversion of leasehold plots in Salt Lake to freehold after paying a conversion fee.

At a televised meeting in June last year, the chief minister held politicians, police and government babus responsible for the mess along
roads and underlined how ugly the city had become in some parts.

“Officials, police, all: a group has formed. Wherever there is free land, you are helping in its encroachment. I can see (encroachments) whenever I am on the road. The police cannot see. They have blindfolded themselves,” Mamata said during the meeting at Nabanna.

After Mamata’s outburst, all attempts to free government land of encroachments were not very successful.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation failed to clear a plot at 355 Prince Anwar Shah Road in south Calcutta of all encroachment. Mamata had spoken about this plot at the televised meeting.

The KMC could only raise a boundary wall along some parts of the plot. Large portions of the plot are still occupied.