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The urban development department has approached police for help in setting up a parking lot next to Salt Lake City Centre in the face of opposition from residents.

Residents are opposed to the project as it would come up on a park in Block DC.

“We have written to the superintendent of North 24-Parganas police and the additional police superintendent, Salt Lake,” said a senior official of the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority’s (CMDA) planning wing.

A year and a half ago, the urban development department had signed an agreement with Simplex Projects Limited for constructing a multi-level parking plaza on a plot adjacent to City Centre.

Pegged at Rs 50 crore — including the cost of land — the project proposed a five-tier building across 62 cottahs where four floors would accommodate around 500 cars and 40 two-wheelers. The rest of the area (15 per cent) would be available for commercial use.

According to the deal, Simplex Projects Limited would undertake the project on a build-operate-transfer basis for 30 years and then hand over the parking lot to the CMDA.

“The deal was signed in March 2008 and construction was supposed to be completed in 18 months. But with residents’ associations protesting against the project, there was hardly any progress,” said a senior CMDA official.

Local residents, including those of The Residency in City Centre, feel the destruction of the picturesque park next to City Centre would be a terrible loss to the locality.

“It is a beautiful park where both young and old residents come in the morning, practise yoga and breathe fresh air. A multi-tier car parking lot would make the area horribly polluted,” pointed out Suranjan Bonerjee, 71, who lives at The Residency.

The company handling the project feels such problems should have been ironed out before the deal was inked. The government has already received nearly 50 per cent of the project cost.

“It’s the government’s responsibility to ensure that we can start work on the project,” said B.K. Duggal of Simplex Projects.

Source: The Telegraph