The Calcutta/Kolkata projects thread

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Science City, Kolkata has invited expression of interest (EoI) under public private partnership (PPP) in order to expand, upgrade, operate, market and maintain its convention centre. EoI has been invited from reputed Indian developers and operators of exhibitions, conventions and hospitality business, which have experience in designing, development, operation, marketing and maintenance of integrated exhibition and/or convention centres and have independent legal entities/joint venture/consortium of firm with strong financial backing.

Leveraging on the advantages of its location and brand value, Science City, Kolkata intends to develop additional state-of-the-art facilities in synergy with the existing facilities. The last day of submitting the EoI is on October 12, 2009.

Science City, Kolkata is a unit of the National Council of Science Museums, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. Science City comprises a Science Centre, one of the largest of its kind in India and a convention centre, which is the largest convention centre in eastern India.

Source : Travel Biz Monitor

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Credits : Suncity

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After crores have been and are still being spent on flyovers, experts feel it is time to dismantle them and adopt more cost-effective and intelligent solutions to transportation problems.
“From road-engineering to transport policy, there has to be a shift from a personalised transport system to a modern, efficient and comfortable mass transit system with greater impetus on pedestrians’ safety,” was the collective view at the symposium on ‘traffic calming strategies to improve pedestrian safety’ organised by Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS).
“In the last 20 years, not a single flyover has been built across Europe. In fact, European countries have developed a policy of gradually getting rid of flyovers. This has helped Europe decongest cities one after another, with a drastic reduction in the number of fatal accidents. In fact, a good bus rapid transit system (BRTS) offers all solutions to complex transportation problems,” said internationally acclaimed transportation expert, Prof. Dinesh Mohan. “Flyovers are used by cars only. Less than 10% of Kolkatans are car-users. How can one spend 80% of the transport budget for 10% of the population. It is undemocratic, he added.
“Flyovers have a big advantage — they are a visible sign of development. But efficacy of these flyovers is questionable. Five years after it was built, the state government is thinking of adding a ramp to the 2-km AJC Bose Road flyover. This shows that the flyover is an example of inadequate planning,” said Union minister of state for urban development, Saugata Roy.
He said his ministry would emphasise pedestrian safety. “We need wider sidewalks. The road engineering should be in complete harmony with the growth of population. Since a majority of road users are pedestrians, sidewalks have to be wider,” Roy added. Civil engineering experts also admitted that their academic focus was completely on the construction of carriageway, not sidewalks. “Now we are making amends,” said Prof. Sudip Roy.

Source : Times of India

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After the Vedic Village and IT township fiasco, here’s a piece of promising news for the state. The state IT department on Monday clinched an agreement for an information technology (IT) hub along EM Bypass.
The deal was inked between Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and the IT department at the civic headquarters on Monday. Accordingly, a five-member committee has been formed to monitor the project. IT secretary Siddharth, who signed the agreement on behalf of the state, will head the committee. Other members of the panel include municipal commissioner Arnab Roy, joint civic commissioner Sahidul Islam and KMC’s controller of finance and accounts, Debatosh Dasgupta.
Mayor Bikash Bhattacharya said KMC would provide a 2-acre plot near Science City from its land bank for the joint venture project. Besides, an escrow account has been opened for the Rs 25-crore project, which has been in the pipeline for the past few years. The project will generate 6,000 jobs for trained
IT professionals in the state, Bhattacharya said. A global tender for construction of the hub would be floated shortly, the mayor said.
Besides creating jobs, the mayor said the IT hub would also be a major source of revenue for the civic body. “Under the agreement, KMC will mop up revenue by providing licences to major IT firms. This will make the civic body financially sound,” Bhattacharya said.

Source : Times of India

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ITC has drawn up big expansion plans for its hotel division in Kolkata and plans to invest Rs 1,500 crore for the initiatives. It will be setting up ITC Sonar Tower-II adjacent to the existing ITC Sonar in the eastern fringes of the city. And unlike the existing one, the new one, which would have about 500 rooms, will have a tall structure (possibly a 27-storey building). The hotel is expected to be complete in three years.
ITC and ITC Hotels officials are tightlipped about the expansion project. A detailed mailed questionnaire sent to the company did not get any response. However, Kolkata Municipal Corp (KMC) officials have confirmed having sanctioned ITC Hotels’ Sonar Tower-II with a total covered area of 1.5 million sq ft. Larsen & Toubro has confirmed having bagged a Rs 238 crore construction order for ITC's second hotel project in the city. The most recent annual report of ITC lists Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata under ‘three great hotels in the making’, which the company claims will add to its chain of super-deluxe properties.
Talking about the hotel division, ITC chairman Y C Deveshwar had said at the company’s 98th annual general meeting the company was in possession of land in cities such as Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bhubaneshwar, Coimbatore and Gurgaon where hotels would be set up. The company is expanding its hotel in Kolkata and setting up a new one with 470 rooms in the city. Deveshwar, however, did not give any timeframe for completion of these projects.
Deveshwar had said that ITC is looking at acquiring properties at reasonable prices to expand its hotel business. And this seven-acre property adjacent to its existing property has now come in handy. “Since seven acres may not be enough for a 500-room, super-luxury hotel, ITC has decided to go vertical this time. Architecturally and from a design standpoint, a vertical structure is better than a horizontal structure, insiders told Financial Chronicle.
The 238-room ITC Sonar of ITC Hotels in Kolkata is ranked No 1 in the hotel industries’ ‘Value Index’ (an industry parlance that measures occupancy rates and revenue, among other things) in the city and this recognition prompted the latest expansion plans.
According to KMC officials, the sanctioned plan talks of a super-luxury hotel with 500-plus rooms built on 27 floors (350 feet). As per the initial plans, the hotel will include seven multi-cuisine restaurants, retail showrooms, 24-hour coffee shop and a banquet hall, among other facilities.

Source : Financial Chronicle

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Land issues have either grounded or stalled the progress of several industrial ventures in Bengal.
But for a city-based developer which had hopped on the IT bandwagon when ‘downturn’ was yet to become a household term, and has been worried no end since, the current turbulence on the land front may provide it with its best chance to keep its SEZ dreams alive.
Oval Developers — whose notified IT SEZ has been under a cloud because of the lowering in business momentum — is banking on land-scarred tech majors warming up to the possibility of setting up a presence at Oval’s delineated economic zone on a 29-acre plot in South 24-Parganas to ensure that they can commence operations here, and in the process, also save the developer from the blushes.
“Rather than putting up the SEZ completely on our own which is a very tough proposition in the current economic environment and also needs huge resources, we have decided to look for anchor tenants, particularly from those who have had problems setting up centres here on account of land-related problems,” Oval Developers co-promoter Noomi Mehta said....

Source : Times of India

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Brand Bengal — whose slide has exactly mirrored the global downturn — seems to be on the road to recovery, with the once familiar words of praise starting to make a comeback on the lips of key stakeholders.
If it was former Assocham president and Videocon Group chairman Venugopal Dhoot on Tuesday waxing eloquent on the state’s potential and how the conglomerate was sold on its merits, it was the turn of US envoy Timothy Roemer on Wednesday to dispel any apprehensions about mega American firms giving the state a go-by because of all that has happened since India’s most respected industrialist Ratan Tata was forced to shift the Nano plant from Singur last October.
“I think people on the ground are positive about the relationship. But, as with any other part of the country, transparency, rule of law, equal opportunity and reward for risks will help to bring more American investments,” Roemer, visiting the city for the first time, told reporters.
Roemer — who held meetings with chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and local representatives of Amcham (an association representing the interests of US companies operating in India) during his stay here — cited the example of Pepsico’s Frito-Lay division to prove that US companies understood where opportunities lay and how to make use of those. Frito-Lay has been one of the biggest US investors in Bengal, with a facility at Howrah’s Sankrail..........

Source : Times of India

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The Netherlands is set to open a trade office in the city by December end.

“We have approached the Netherlands commerce ministry and the local government here for opening a business support office in Calcutta. The legal process is expected to be over in a month,” Bob Hiensch, Netherlands’ ambassador to India, said here today.

At present, the Netherlands has 40 trade offices, globally, and two of them are in India.

“Our offices in Chennai and Ahmedabad are the most successful ones. The third office in India will be in Calcutta and we also have plans to open another in Hyderabad,” the ambassador said.

Hiensch, who met state commerce and industries secretary Sabyasachi Sen today, said they had “fruitful” discussions; Sen had assured him all assistance in opening the office.

Hiensch and Sen also discussed possibilities of collaboration in sectors such as agriculture, food processing, floriculture, petrochemicals, water storage and vocational training.

“These are the sectors where we have the expertise which the state (Bengal) needs,” Hiensch said.

The ambassador said the Netherlands hoped to cross the $10-billion-mark in bilateral trade with India by 2013.

Source : The Telegraph

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Indian Institute of Chemical Biology(U/C) site




U/C


Taj Gateway U/C at Ruby

Photo Courtesy : SarafIndian

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With the VVIP enclosure controversy at Eden Gardens far from over, Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) seems headed for more trouble, this time over renovation of the two blocks that it has taken up for the 2011 world cup.

Kolkata Municipal Corporation is peeved that the association started construction work inside the stadium without bothering to take its permission. The KMC building department has slapped a stop-work notice on what it calls an “illegal construction” because CAB did not submit the project plan for approval. The civic authorities have ordered CAB to cease work immediately, submit a detailed plan to KMC and wait for the answer.

The decision to serve the notice was taken after the joint director-general of KMC’s building department, Debasis Kar, inspected Eden Gardens while the construction was on.

Kar reported his findings to mayor Bikash Bhattacharya and sought his permission to serve a ‘stern notice’ to the state cricket body for allegedly flouting the standard norms. The notice was issued under Section 401 of the KMC Buildings Act, which empowers KMC to pull down any “illegal structure” or impose a huge penalty on the offender to have the building regularized.

Livid with the CAB ‘defiance’, the mayor asked the buildings department to deal with the case firmly. Bhattacharya came down heavily on the CAB, saying the entire structure was illegal. “How can we keep our eyes shut when there has been gross violation of KMC building rules? In such cases, the KMC building department does not require my permission to send a notice to the errant organization,” he said. Under no circumstances would CAB be allowed to start reconstruction of the galleries without the KMC sanction, Bhattacharya said.

CAB joint secretary Biswarup De, however, said that the association has already obtained a sanction from the state PWD department for remodelling the stadium. “Will someone from the KMC tell us why we should take permission from two authorities for the same purpose. Once I have obtained permission from the PWD, is there any need to apply for the same before the KMC building department? I am afraid that this points to a lack of coordination among government departments,” De said.

The KMC joint director-general (building) contests this. Kar told TOI that it was mandatory for CAB to get its building plans passed by the civic body. “Any deviation from this will be treated as an illegal affair and the structure will be termed as illegal as well,” Kar said.

PWD minister Kshiti Goswami confirmed that his department had approved the plan submitted by CAB for reconstruction of Eden Gardens. “We are the apex body to give sanction to the plan submitted by the cricket body. If the KMC has to say anything on the plan, they may take up the matter with the CAB authorities, but KMC is yet to inform us of the matter,” Goswami said.

Source : Times of India

[mannu12]

cc keble 755
South City

[airportparking]

Nice project.........

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ONGC kolkata from Hafeez contractor website.
Compared to those coconut trees the building must be around 100m tall.



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[jinka sreekanth]

Uniworld heights 25 to 27 floors 10 buildings construction update









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[jinka sreekanth]

Uniworld gardens 9 to 21 stories 10 buildings completed









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[brtodi]

Would love to stay here.

[jinka sreekanth]

Uniworld downtown construction update

Tower1 20 stories and tower2 17 stories completed



Tower 3 20 stories and tower4 24 stories






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[jinka sreekanth]

Uniworld Air 45 storeies

[jinka sreekanth]

Unitech Horizon 10 buildings completed

Tower 1 - 17 storeys
Tower 2 - 19 storeys
Tower 3 - 21 storeys
Tower 4 - 21 storeys
Tower 5 - 19 storeys
Tower 6 - 17 storeys
Tower 7 - 11 storeys
Tower 8 - 11 storeys
Tower 9 - 11 storeys





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[jinka sreekanth]

Uniworld images







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