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Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate is about to get a host of new offices, campuses and grounds that would help them work better and even improve the officers’ living conditions.
Last month the state cabinet allotted four plots in New Town to the police commissionerate for the development work. At present the commissionerate has 10 police stations under it and governs an area of 148.77 sq km.
The commissionerate itself operates out of a temporary office in the Salt Lake stadium campus. It was allotted space for a permanent office next to Calcutta Heart Clinic & Hospital Society in HC Block a few years ago but work is yet to begin.
Nonetheless the officials are happy with the developments in New Town. “This will really help our staff. Work should start in two or three months,” said deputy commissioner, headquarters, Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate C. Sudhakar.
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Site for new thana
A new police station would come up in New Town’s CF Block, near Axis Mall, for residents of Action Area (AA) 1.
New Town has an existing thana opposite Tata Medical Center but it faces major challenges. It is responsible for 24.5 sq km but this includes both urban and semi-rural areas. “Several housing complexes are located far away and it’s too far to reach quickly when we get a call,” said an officer.
Moreover, they have jurisdiction issues with the Kolkata Leather Complex (KLC) thana that does not fall under the Bidhannagar Commissionerate. Residents of complexes like Jal Vayu Towers, Greenfield Heights and Aloka Abasan are located very close to the existing New Town thana but they have to head to the KLC one, about 20km away, to lodge a complaint.
“Naturally the cops take ages to respond to a distress call. In case of an emergency everything will have finished by the time they reach us,” said Rajdeep Ray, a resident of Greenfield Heights.
In 2013, a big face-off took place near Aquatica between officers of the New Town and KLC thanas. An accident had occurred and a New Town thana patrol team arrived. Witnesses allege the cops settled the case by accepting some bribe and were about to leave when the KLC officers arrived. They claimed the area was under their jurisdiction and that it was they who had the right to “settle” the matter.
By then, those involved in the accident had left but it was the police who fought before the crowd. It ended with an assistant sub-inspector of the KLC allegedly pointing his revolver at his counterpart.
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But with a new police station in New Town, the jurisdictions should get re-drawn and such problems eliminated. The AA 1 plot measures around one acre.
Eye on the park & beyond
Eco Tourism Park has an existing outpost that has been successful in keeping under check cases of thefts and eve-teasing inside the park as well as on the outside lane. Now a half-acre plot has been allotted near the outpost to expand it.
It would be a modern outpost that can be converted into a fully-functional police station when required.
“The plan is to have two new police stations in New Town at the earliest. The outpost in Eco Park might be converted to a fully functional thana,” said an officer.
At present, the outpost can only be accessed by people who have entered the park but after expansion, people would have direct access to it without buying a ticket to enter the park.
Office for traffic guard
A chunk of accidents and traffic-related cases in New Town occur on the Major Arterial Road. Keeping this in mind, the authorities have decided to build an office dedicated to the traffic police in New Town.
The office will be built in a 0.41-acre plot in AA I’s AD Block, near the old New Town police station behind Nazrul Tirtha.
There are several traffic guards in the commissionerate, such as in Lake Town, the airport area and Baguiati and they have their own offices on VIP Road. In Salt Lake the traffic inspector’s office is inside Bidhannagar North police station.
Parade ground
At present police personnel celebrate Republic Day and Independence Day in front of the police commissioner’s office in the stadium or in the neighbouring SAI complex. The recently-concluded football tournament organised by the commissionerate was conducted in various parks of Salt Lake and New Town.
All this would change when the cops get their own parade ground spanning over three acres in Action Area III, further down from the Unitech building.
“Having a ground is extremely important. We can use it for marchpasts, performances of police bands and other purposes,” said an officer.
Space to stay
At present police personnel live in barracks of their respective thanas but a one-acre plot has been demarcated adjacent to the parade ground to build residential quarters.
“The police lines address a pressing need. Our barracks near the old Bidhannagar east police station had to be pulled down as a new building is being built there and its officers are having to make do in the Karunamoyee Market complex that is housing the thana temporarily,” said the officer.
