Rajarhat in land jinx

West Bengal's showpiece township, Rajarhat, has yet again succumbed to the developmental nemesis that has dodged the state in recent years — land.

Even as realty activity in the township, to the east of Kolkata, has picked up in the past few months with the effects of the slowdown diluting, purchasers of residential and commercial properties looking to move into the area may now have to go without electricity for some time.

Senior officials of the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL), which is responsible for power transmission and distribution in the township, have said that the firm will be unable to provide new connections in the Rajarhat area as the land required for erecting a handful of crucial transmission towers cannot be procured.

The power utility has already established two sub-stations in Rajarhat with a combined capacity of about 300 MVA which, however, remain disconnected from the grid as the transmission lines are not in place.

Although plots of only 225 square meter are required for these transmission towers, land-owners have been unwilling to part with their holdings due to possible political intervention, officials claim. At present, WBSEDCL consumers are being serviced though a sub-station at Salt Lake, which will be unable to cope with when demand increases.

“We have only about 4,000-5,000 consumers in Rajarhat at the moment, but the numbers will go up substantially as new residential developments and industries are coming up. Unless, we get land for the transmission towers, people will not get power,” a senior official of WBSEDCL said.

Consequently, WBSEDCL has written to the state government, the state's power regulator and other concerned authorities. On its part, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), which has been alleged to have influenced local land-holders, said that the accusations were baseless.

“If the party in power (CPI-M) had acquired land at random earlier, why are they blaming us now? The apprehensions of the farmers over the acquisition of land has been dealt with,” TMC leader Partha Chatterjee said.

In December last year, WBSEDCL had said that it had spent about Rs 300 crore to set up five sub-stations at Rajarhat, Sodepur, Subhasgram, Singur and Kolkata West International City, which could not be operationalised due to lack of complete transmission lines.