After the success stories of Sector V and New Town, the government has set its eyes on another locality not too far from us. This time it will be Bantala, behind the bheris of Sector V, and it will called Sector VI.
The announcement to develop the area was made last year but now work is about to start. At a recent event held at Sector V, minister for urban development and municipal affairs Firhad Hakim spoke about the plans. “We are working on a new road that will connect Sector V’s Ring Road to Basanti Highway and Sector VI. The road will pass through Bantala Bazar leading directly to the Leather Complex,” said Hakim, who is also the chairman of Sector VI.
The development, he said, would facilitate business in the region. “It is our dream to bring the youth who had left in search of better opportunities back to Calcutta. And it will happen soon,” said Hakim.
The road from Sector V to VI is being built by Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority (NDITA) and its chairman, Debashis Sen, said IT would be frontrunner in the region. “The area has been renamed Sector VI by the chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Sector V stands for IT and business development and we want Sector VI to be associated with job opportunities, business development and revenue earners too,” said Sen.
Township in the making
As the crow flies, Sector VI is not that far off from Sector V. It’s just divided by bheris. But the perception is that it’s at the back of beyond. “When we tell friends that our office is at Bantala, they joke that we’re working ‘on-site’, a term used when employees go out of town or country to the client’s location,” says Smaran Swaroop Mishra, who works at the Cognizant Technology Solutions campus at Bantala.
But Mishra, who is actually on-site in Hong Kong at the moment, was delighted on getting the news from The Telegraph Salt Lake. “I’m glad they’re starting with connectivity. It used to take me an hour by car to reach office from my BD Block home if I took the EM Bypass. But that road had no divider and was accident-prone,” he says. So the other option was driving up to Uniworld City in New Town and taking a longer route through the rural belt.
“If more industries come up there we will have more food and entertainment options too. As of now even pizzas don’t get delivered there. I also hope they do something about the awful smell emitting from the tanneries and garbage dumps. I got sick the first time I took the bus to our office there,” says Mishra.
The authorities are considering most of these factors. Sector VI is being developed by the Sector VI Industrial Township Authority in Bantala, much on the lines of NDITA that looks after Sector V of Salt Lake. Both are independent bodies as per the Municipalities Act and Sector VI will follow the NDITA model.
The government is also set to allow relaxation to industrialists under Section 14Y of the Land Ceiling Act in the township projects. This could mean cheaper rates for the land. One-fourth of the land in the new townships will be reserved for projects to benefit the economically-weaker sections too.
At present, many locals of the area are fishermen dependent on the bheris between Sector V and VI. The area also has farmlands and dumpyards (including Dhapa). Most houses are huts, made of clay and haystacks.
“Four mouzas have been incorporated in the township — Karaidanga, Bhatipota, Gangapur and Andulgori. These were previously under the jurisdiction of gram panchayats but will now be looked after by the Sector VI Industrial Township Authority,” said Md Ghulam Nabi Ansari, Project Director, Sector VI.
Staff deputed by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) are now visiting the area daily to asses the situation and determine steps. “We will provide municipal facilities to start with. Things like road, electricity, infrastructure development, slum development, house drainage/sewerage, water supply etc are being surveyed,” said Ansari. “Thereafter funds will be sanctioned to begin work. We are not encroaching upon anyone’s land.”
The first step to development, the authorities have decided, is connectivity. NDITA has begun work on the link road from Sector V to VI. It will be 7.5m wide and two-laned.
It would start from the Ring Road by the bheris, cross Thakdari, Chaukher Bheri, Khashmohol, Choynavi, Macher Bheri, Bantala Regular Gate No 10 and culminate at Bantala Bazar crossing at Basanti Highway. Till here it is under the jurisdiction of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation’s Ward 36. Thereafter one can take a left and reach Bantala Leather Complex or right to the upcoming Atmosphere complex.
At present, connectivity to the area is poor. Roads are very narrow and are barely metalled. There is a 5.5km auto route from Chingrihata to the area near Atmosphere that takes 20 minutes and costs Rs 12. Another route from Chingrihata to Kalitala (another area in Bantala) covers 3.5km in 15 minutes and costs Rs 10. Apart from this, locals use motorcycles or cycles. No buses ply in the area.
Gokul Mondal, an associate professor of the construction engineering department, Jadavpur University, is in charge of drawing up the detailed project development report and design for this road connector. “The project cost is around
Rs 35-40 crore and the project plan will be ready in a month or so,” said Mondal.
Hurdles in the way
But there are some issues that need to be kept in mind on this route plan. “First is cross drainage. There are canals on both sides of the road which need to stay interconnected so there is no flooding,” he said. “Another problem is piling up of embankments. The existing road is very narrow. On the left side are bheris owned by the fishery department and pisciculture is practised by most residents as a profession. So we have to fill up a certain portion of the bheris. Cross-section engineering work needs to be done along this stretch of the road. Also, the road load will be 100 tonnes so we will have to strengthen the road to be able to bear that.”
But the bheris here are part of the East Kolkata Wetlands, protected by the Ramsar Convention. This is a 1971 international treaty signed in Ramsar, Iran, for the conservation and sustainable utilisation of wetlands, and any development in this fragile ecosystem is likely to get vetoed by environmentalists. “We will need an NOC from the irrigation department before commencing work.”
Residents of Bantala welcome the move. “We have been living in neglect for long. No one comes here except to dump garbage. Even the air smells foul because most of the garbage is set on fire. The area is full of unemployed youths who need a vocation. We badly want development here,” said Nonigopal Das, a 50-year-old resident of the area.
A lot of the land in Sector VI is at present encroached upon. “Not many people here have documents for the land they occupy. They just came and settled down. If the government comes to build hospitals and schools here they will be pushed back and settle some kilometres further back. They cannot go to court without proper papers,” Das said.
