Land ceiling draft report ready

The committee was set up to review the Urban Land (ceiling & regulation) Act by the West Bengal government had submitted its draft report.

Speaking at Merchants Chamber of Commerce, Asok Bhattarcharya, state municipal affairs and urban development minister, said, “The draft report has been submitted by the committee and the final report would be produced by one month, after which it would be given to the chief minister for a final decision to be taken either by the chief minister or the cabinet”.

Bhattarcharya claimed the state government was committed to repeal the act under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme. The Rs 4,680-crore East-West Metro project, a 13.77km stretch of underground and elevated tracks from Salt Lake to Howrah and extension of metro rail from Tollygunge to new Garia station were mega metro projects in the state on a fast track of completion, claimed a bureaucrat. Urban development secretary M Ramachandran said rail projects in the state would be completed in scheduled time.

The extension work of the Dum Dum-Tollygunge link to new Garia would be done by June 2009, and service would start immediately, said Ramachandran.

He said that 5.7km of the 13.77km Salt Lake to Howrah East-West metro project with six stations would be completed by 2013 and the rest by 2014.

For the East-West metro project, Ramachandran admitted some hitches. For example, the Bowbazar station was facing local resistance.

The Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation, the company for the East-West project, wanted the station but no decision had been taken yet. The state government had asked for the Bowbazar station to be scrapped because of the land acquisition issues. The station was in the original proposed plan and could not be scrapped easily, said Ramachandran.

He said the Urban Development ministry had no budgetary constraints for metro rail projects. R N Verma, general manager of the Kolkata Metro said work orders for beautification and upgradation of the Kolkata Metro had been placed.

All the new rakes would be airconditioned while work on repairing the damaged air conditioning system at existing stations had started. According to Verma, the proposed Dum Dum-Dakshineswar Metro was in the pipeline, as the report had been prepared and submitted for central and state approval.

Bhattacharya claimed that so far, 26 projects had been sanctioned under the JNNURM scheme, including five in Asansol and 21 in Kolkata with approved cost of Rs 1999.97 crore.

Of the total Rs 1999.97 crore cost, the Centre would pay Rs 731.94 crore. Of the 26 projects sanctioned, 16 were for water supply and four for roads and flyovers, with two each for solid waste management, drainage and sewerage.