New Town, Kolkata

New Town is a planned satellite city of Kolkata, India. It comes under North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is close to Kolkata and covered by New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA).

HIDCO planned developing infrastructure like - roads, drains, sewerage line, water supply lines, major embellishment works and executed constructions like - buildings, projects, parks, museum, subways, over-bridges in New Town. This new information technology and residential hub is being developed on the north-eastern fringes of Kolkata. The area mainly consisted of huge acres of cultivable lands and water bodies, which was acquired and developed in a planned manner. The process of investing in residential and industrial facilities and infrastructural development of the area was mainly started under the leadership of the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, Jyoti Basu in the late 1990s. The master plan envisions a township which is at least three times bigger than the neighbouring planned Salt Lake City. New Town (close to Rajarhat) was declared as a ''Solar City'' by the former UPA-governed central regime and later this city was declared as ''Smart Green City'' by NDA-governed central regime with the help of Government of West Bengal following a proposal submitted by Mamata Banerjee, (Chief Minister of West Bengal) but later withdrawn from the Smart Cities Mission after the AITC-governed Bengal government decided to withdraw all cities from the competition. It has rejected ''1,000 crore'' to be given for development of the city as smart city. New Town was enabled with 10.5 km of Wi-Fi Zone along the Major Arterial Road (part of Biswa Bangla Sarani) from Haldiram, near Dumdum/Kolkata Airport to Salt Lake Sector V, which also make it India's first Wi-Fi road connectivity. The stretch has already been declared as a green corridor.

Prehistory

A group of researchers of Archeological and Environmental science department of University of Calcutta found some pottery artifacts from a mound at Kochpukur area near the East Kolkata Wetlands in Southern New Town. Researchers said that the artifacts are very similar to the excavation of Chandraketugarh, that dates back to centuries. However the Radiocarbon dating of the potteries not yet done. These excavation reveals that New Town isn't as ‘New’ as we think generally.

Geography

New Town is located at . The township is located in the Bidhannagar subdivision of North 24 Parganas district. It was declared as a part of the Kolkata Metropolitan Area in August 2016 by Governor of West Bengal.

Economy

New Town being three times the size of Salt Lake has emerged as the second IT hub of Kolkata. Several Information Technology majors are operational the likes of Ericsson, Accenture, Capgemini, Tech Mahindra, ITC Infotech, Mindtree, Bengal Silicon Valley, Adani Labs,British Telecom, etc. while others like TCS (40 acres), Wipro (45 acres) and Infosys (50 acres) have been allotted space along with Cognizant. Many luxurious hotels like Fairfield by Marriott, Novotel, Ibis, Taj Hotels, Westin Hotels & Resorts, The Park Hotels, Holiday Inn, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Lemon Tree Hotels, etc. have also come up in the area.

New Town is also being developed as a Fintech hub by HIDCO. So far 25 financial institutions, both banking and non-banking, have taken up space in the Fintech hub located in the New Town.

Demographics

As of April 2018, the residential population of New Town is estimated to be more than 1 million with 0.5 million additional floating population.

Civic administration

The New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) has been constituted under The New Town Kolkata Development Authority Act, 2007 (The West Bengal Act XXX of 2007) for rendering various civic services and amenities within New Town, Kolkata and it has come into effect since November, 2008. It is a transitional arrangement in the way of creation of an Urban Local Body (ULB). The administration is headed by a chairman, exercising authority over a member secretary and Chief executive officer, who in turn oversee various specific committees, set up to implement various duties.

Utility services

As of 2015, New Town gets 200 litre per capita per day (lcpd) of treated water every day with potable water that is sourced from the Hooghly River. Water treatment plants with computerised monitoring and control system are in place. 100% of the garbage is collected by sanitary workers through door to door collection. As of 2015, more than 70% of the solid waste management vehicles and street sweeping vehicles have been fitted with GPS devices for effective monitoring. All the garbage is compacted at compacting stations before disposing of it in dumping grounds.

Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) plans and executes development projects in New Town, Kolkata. The erstwhile planning area of HIDCO is divided into four Action Areas i.e. Action Area - I, Action Area – II, Action Area - III and Action Area - IV (still not started). The Central Business District (CBD) is located between Action Area - I & II. As multinational IT companies are coming in New Town, HIDCO is developing the city as per their master plan. HIDCO has also decided to install the geographic information system (GIS) to integrate the database on the number of house owners, property tax, mutation, building construction etc. in New Town.

Electricity is supplied and managed by New Town Electric Supply Company Limited (NTESCL). Fire services are handled by the West Bengal Fire Service, a state agency. The Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate looks after the law and order in the city.

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), as well as private enterprises, among them Vodafone, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Reliance Jio, Tata DoCoMo are the leading telephone and cell phone service providers in the city. Kolkata being the first city in India to have cell phone and 4G connectivity, the GSM and CDMA cellular coverage is extensive in New Town.

Transport

The main mode of transportation, like other parts of Kolkata includes air conditioned, non-AC government and private buses, taxi and other popular Indian transports like auto rickshaw and e-rickshaws. As of 2015, around 300 buses on 25 different bus routes, either passes through or originates from New Town. As of November 2016, the New Garia– Dumdum/Kolkata Airport Line ( Line 6) of the Kolkata Metro, which passes through New Town, is under-construction with cost inflation and delays.

Education

Some of the educational and training institutes that are setting up their campuses in New Town:
*University of Engineering & Management (UEM), Kolkata
* Amity University Kolkata
* Presidency University
* St. Xaviers University
* IIT Kharagpur Research Park
* Aliah University
* Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management
* Institute of Chartered Accountants of India
* Ramakrishna Mission Centre of Excellence
* Belle Vue Nursing College
* West Bengal Power Development Corporation (WBPDCL) Training Institute
* Techno India
* West Bengal Judicial Academy

For the children, to study up to the 12th standard, New Town also houses many schools:
* Delhi Public School
* Narayana School
*The Newtown School
* Bodhicariya Senior Secondary School
* Sri Chaitanya techno school

See also

* Satellite city
* Biswa Bangla Gate
* Eco Park

References

External links

*

New Town, Kolkata
– Development Authority West Bengal

{{Municipalities of West Bengal

Neighbourhoods in Kolkata
Planned communities
New towns started in the 1990s
Cities and towns in North 24 Parganas district
Planned cities in India
Neighbourhoods in North 24 Parganas district
Kolkata Metropolitan Area