Kolkata has for long remained a geographically constrained metropolis. Life centered around a few downtown destinations, and anything beyond is simply not favored. Lack of growth severely curtailed its claim to be counted among top Indian metros. So much so that a few years back, there even was a government plan to downgrade Kolkata’s rating a notch or 2 below the two glamorous elites, Mumbai and New Delhi.
Much water has flown down the Hooghly since. Today, Kolkata is spreading its wings at a frenetic pace, unseen ever in this part of the country. The mammoth township of New Town is a case in point. New Town (NT) is expected to accommodate nearly half-a-million residents in 2 years flat, though all you now see is vast stretches of barren land with a few dots of construction activities.
Uniworld’s swanky apartments planned in NT.
Picture source : http://www.axiomestates.com/img/heights_elev.jpg.
The state housing minister says NT is better in terms of infrastructural amenities than Gurgaon or Noida. Having been to all these places, my own guess is what he says may well be true. Yet, unless brick-and-mortars come up and people start inhabiting the place, nothing can be said for sure.
Eight 26-floor towers, Rosedale Gardens, NT.
Picture from : http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?p=1973492.
Yes – but how about the environmental impact? Raw sewage, untreated into the ground and open waterways by these same “reputable” builders.
The planners (is there a master plan with drainage, anti-flooding, waste management, transport plans or is it the usual Indian cowboy development carried out with a sinister speed with cash passing hands between the planning authorities and the builders’ lobby? Do we wnat another Mumbai or turn the Ganges into a Delhi Jamuna? Where is the accountability in our land of corruption? Wary.