January
HIGHER FAR: New Town authorities permitted a 10 per cent increase in floor area ratio (FAR) for small plots up to 3.3 cottahs, responding to repeated requests from allottees through a notification published on January 6. Revised rules now allow residential plots of up to 3.3 cottahs a maximum ground coverage of 65 per cent. Buildings on these plots can now have a floor area of 1,538 sq ft, up from the previous 1,302 sq ft.
G20 MAKEOVER: New Town got a makeover in the run-up to G20 Summit. The MAR got new LED streetlights, improved road markings, and a fresh layer of smooth bitumen, ensuring a smoother and safer driving experience. The footpath walls from Sector V to New Town got painted with icons of Bengal too.
FIRE IN FD BLOCK: A fire on January 12 gutted illegal eateries, shops, and a political party office opposite the Administrative Training Institute in FD Block. It took 12 fire engines over 40 minutes to extinguish the flames and the incident underscored the fire risk posed by unlicensed stalls made of tin, bamboo and plastic sheets.
BELLS FOR ELDERLY: Bidhannagar Commissionerate installed bells outside 77 homes of Saanjhbati members. These are senior citizens living alone who have signed up as members. The bell’s switch is inside and the ringer outside so in case of emergencies, the elderly residents are to ring it and alert neighbours.
BOOK FAIR: The 46th International Kolkata Book Fair was inaugurated on January 30 by the chief minister at the Central Park fairground. Boimela Prangon signages were installed above the gates. The focal country was Spain. The fair took place from January 31 to February 12 and sold books worth Rs 25 crore.
A fireman douses flames in FD Block
February
MEDICAL AID: A charitable medical unit was inaugurated at IB Block community hall on February 5. Two general physicians, a homeopathy doctor, dentist, physiotherapist are available by rotation on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesday, Thursdays and Sundays. The service is open to everyone and the fee is Rs 10.
ZOO IN NEW TOWN: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee remotely inaugurated a mini zoo in Eco Park on February 9. The zoo came up at Harinalaya that already had deer and now has hippopotamus, zebra, giraffe, salt and sweet water crocodiles and birds. Plans are afoot to get more animals like monkeys and black panthers.
The 17 acre zoo was built with an investment of Rs 19 crore and follows the guidelines of the Central Zoo Authority. The ticket price is Rs 30. The zoo is open from 10am to 5pm and entry is opposite gate 6 of Eco Park.
UNDERPASS TO ACTION AREA III: The city’s first-of-its-kind tunnel underpass was opened on February 9 at the Biswa Bangla Gate crossing. The underpass, with colourful paintings on the walls, is 320m long and up to 4.2m below ground level. Heavy vehicles will travel on the road above and smaller ones underneath. The stretch is two-way, to and from the Salt Lake side to the Tata Medical Center side. The tunnel also has a four-way pedestrian subway complex on its lower tier that was opened in 2021.
LIBRARY FOR ALL: The Bidhannagar police commissionerate started “Boi Bari” to support the education of underprivileged children on February 21. It is a library of 1,500 books at Thakdari, en route to Balaka Abasan from the Biswa Bangla Gate, offering free access to all without membership. Another library has come up at Bidhannagar North police station. These centres are also housing e-shiksha centres to teach computer operations free of cost.
March
FIRE IN AE BLOCK: A fire broke out at the gate of AE Block’s green verge on March 8 when a pile of dry leaves on the pavement got ignited. The authorities had failed to clear the verge despite repeated pleas so the residents themselves had got the area swept on February 26 and heaped the leaves out on the footpath. But the authorities failed to even remove this. Three fire tenders were needed to extinguish the flames.
CINEMA DEMOLISHED: Lake Town’s only single-screen theatres Jaya and Mini Jaya, got demolished. The owner, Monojit Banik, cited poor attendance post-lockdown and plans to build in its place a shopping mall with retail stores and a multiplex cinema. Jaya had opened in 1967 with Uttam Kumar’s Jibon Mrityu and Mini Jaya was added in the late 1970s. For decades this was the only movie hall for residents of the area. Currently only the part housing some ground floor shops stand.
CO-WORKING CO-LIVING SPACE: SmartConnect, an affordable accommodation and workspace for IT professionals, was inaugurated on February 21. The two acre space is diagonally opposite the Westside store in ActionArea II and has separate blocks for co-living and co-working. It is meant to address the need for living spaces for IT professionals from out of town, reducing the environmental impact by allowing proximity to workplaces and amenities like common kitchen.
COMMUNITY CENTRE FOR AL BLOCK: ALBlock community centre opened on February 26, 10 years after the foundation stone got laid. The foundation stone for the two-storeyed building was laid in June 2013 but work was stalled due to a number of administrative issues.
April
HOSPITAL GOES HIGH TECH: Bidhannagar Subdivisional Hospital conducted its first laparoscopic cholecystectomy (gallbladder removal) on April 5. Such a modern surgery is a rarity at the subdivisional hospital level in Bengal and the procedure was facilitated by equipment acquired last year. The surgery, by a four-member team led by Dr Partha Sarathi Naskar, took 15 minutes and it was done free of cost for an IB Block resident.
NAMAZ IN NEW TOWN: New Town witnessed its first-ever largescale namaz at the NKDA community centre on April 22 during Eid ul-Fitr. NKDA granted permission to the New Town Citizens Welfare Fraternity, that had sought the space on behalf of Muslim residents for a centralised space to offer their prayers twice a year, on Eid ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Zoha.
TRAGIC FALL: On April 26, a two-year-old boy, Susmit Biswas, fell to his death from the fifth-floor balcony of Clubtown Gateway. He had climbed through a gap in the balcony grille meant for flowerpots, resulting in the fatal fall. The next day, a 34-year-old man Rajarshi Dutta fell from his 14th-floor apartment at Eden Court Complex. The twin tragedies prompted the authorities to issue safety advisories for housing complexes and multi-storeyed buildings including guideline precautions for windows, balconies and common areas.
TRADE LICENCES GO ONLINE: Business owners in Salt Lake now have the convenience of filing for new trade licences and renewing existing ones online. The payment and other formalities can be done through Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation’s website www. bmcwbgov.in. This move is also aimed at boosting revenue for the cash-strapped civic body.
FUTSAL FIELD: A three-acre hangout zone was opened near Akankha and the NKDA community centre 2 offering an astro turf futsal ground to accommodate six-a-side matches. The three-acre ground is covered by a 15ft high net on all sides and has floodlights to allow games till midnight. Adjacent to it, there is a park where food stalls come up in the evenings and children’s rides have been planned. The first booking for a match was on May 9.
May
DEER ATTACK: A 42-year-old contractual employee at Harinalaya Mini Zoo in New Town was attacked by a male spotted deer on May 2. The deer’s antlers pierced into Prasad Barman’s small intestine and he had to undergo a life-saving surgery.
June
GANESH HALOI SHOW: Artiste and AE Block resident Ganesh Haloi’s first exhibition of portraits was held Debovasha art gallery from June 4. In a departure from his well-known landscape compositions, the 87-year-old displayed 12 large portraits titled “Presence & Absence,” that he had created in 1995.
NEW LINK TO NEW TOWN: A new bridge connecting the Balaka Abasan area of New Town with the bheri area in Sector V was inaugurated on June 8 virtually by the chief minister. The 600m long four-lane bridge cost Rs 57.4 crore and provides a much-needed alternate route in and out of the township alleviating congestion around the Technopolis stretch.
ROBOTS AS CLEANERS: In a first of its kind initiative in the state, NKDA introduced robotics technology to clean New Town’s sewerage and drainage network. Three machines from a Kerala-based company equipped with sensors, cameras, and robotic arms, have been procured which are capable of cleaning a manhole in 20 minutes. The machines have an extendable arm to grab, shovel, and unblocking debris, and also a bucket system for waste discharge. Each action area got a machine each.
CHARIOT DEBUT: Rathyatra was celebrated on a large scale in New Town this year when a chariot, organised by New Town Sanskritik Sangathan rolled it on June 20. It travelled over 6km from the Shiv Kali temple near 18 tola (Greenfield Heights) to Shiv Parivar and Kali temple in CC Block, near Biswa Bangla gate. Nearly 1,000 devotees came together to pull the chariot.
July
SNAKE ALARM: A 23-year-old youth from Uttar Pradesh, who was in New Town to take an entrance exam, suffered a snake bite near Downtown mall and died before he could be administered. Siddhant Rakshit died on July 2. Then on July 17, Sourav Naskar, who worked as a security guard, was playing football near Sukhobrishti and waded into a pond for a bath afterwards and was bitten by a snake there. After the twin tragedies, the three urban primary health centres in New Town have started storing anti-snake venom serums.
PANCHAYAT POLL: A farcical panchayat election took place in New Town on July 8. Residents of the state’s only smart township had initially protested at being included in the panchayat area but the authorities claimed the rectification could not be made in time this year. In response, a “boycott election” call was sounded by a section of residents. On the day of voting, unfamiliar faces blocked voters’ access into the booths and turned abusive towards voters and journalists alike. The turnout nonetheless was recorded to be over 75 per cent and on July 11, Trinamul Congress won everywhere by landslide margins.
E-VIGIL ON ROADS: A total of 32 CCTV cameras installed at key points across Sector II was officially unveiled on July 17. The cameras are being monitored at the Bidhannagar East police station. Some of the cameras are so high tech that it would take the police barely a second to track a vehicle at the two major entry and exit points from Sector II if its licence plate number is fed into the system.
September
WALKERS’ PLAZA: Sector V got a pedestrian plaza on September 12. Situated on Street no 25, between Infinity Benchmark and RDB Boulevard, it is a 50m stretch with tall crystal obelisks on both sides, creating a visually appealing look. There are over 200 LED ground lights, 40 PAR lights, and 300m of LED strip lights, synchronized with the obelisks’ changing lights, creating a dazzling effect.
October
BEHIND BARS: Jyotipriya Mallick, forest affairs minister and a resident of BC Block, was arrested on October 27 by the enforcement directorate (ED). The arrest was made in connection with an alleged money laundering case linked to a multi-core ration distribution scam.
CALL FOR HELP: Bidhannagar Commissionerate launched a helpline number for women on October 7. Women in distress who dial 74499 00111 will get to speak to women police officers posted at the control room as they are more likely to feel comfortable narrating their experience to a woman than a man.
FURRY SWIMMERS: A pet swimming pool opened in EE Block on October 8. The facility is part of Pet Dreamland, that also offers a pet café and crèche but it’s the pool that was most lacking in the township. Though not the first of its kind in Salt Lake, the 18ft x 10ft x 3ft terrace pool is much larger than an existing pool in FD Block and even has heated water facilities in winter.
November
SHOWCASE SPACE: The Biswa Bangla Exhibition Centre was inaugurated by the chief minister on November 21 during the Bengal Global Business Summit that took place at Biswa Bangla Convention Centre next door. The state-of-the-art exhibition hall is spread over some 2 lakh-sq feet. It resembles a hanger from the outside.
December
FAIR POSTPONED: Salt Lake’s favourite fair, Bidhannagar Mela (Utsav), did not take place this December. The reason was an early start to the International Kolkata Book Fair, that will take place at Central Park from January 18 to 31. This meant the usual duration of Bidhannagar Mela (Utsav) would have had to be curtailed , to allow the ground to be handed over to the Book Fair organisers in time. Residents were upset but the authorities claim that the fair will be held sometime after the book fair, though no dates have been announced as yet.
WATERSIDE PARK: The canal side along VIP Road in the Dum Dum Park-Bangur Avenue-Lake Town area got a facelift after the National Green Tribunal directed that a biodiversity park with walking path and earthwork embankment on both sides be created in the area to protect the burrow pit from encroachment and ensure clean flow of water. Previously it was such an eyesore that it was boarded up during the Fifa Under -17 World Cup in 2017. It has now got walkways, plantations and a dredged waterbody. . On December 21, the chief minister virtually inaugurated it from the Allen Park stage on Park Street and named it Jhillika. The project cost the exchequer Rs 9.47 crore.
HAWKERS RESIST EVICTION: Illegal hawkers attacked NKDA officials, civic volunteers and the police when the latter tried to clear New Town’s Jyotinagar market area of encroachment. Two people had to be hospitalised with head injuries and needed stitches after the December 23 incident. The market, near the business club, has shacks on stilts rising from the bed of Bagjola canal. Not only are these made of flammable materials and encroach the banks, but they also obstruct the flow of water.
NEIGHBOURS WE LOST
Goutam Halder
Who: Theatre and film director
Resident of: HB Block
Died on: November 3 The passing of the national award-winning filmmaker brought together neighbours as well as colleagues from the theatre and film world. Actress Vidya Balan, who had debuted in Halder’s film Bhalo Theko, flew in from Mumbai. A memorial meet was held later at Asiatic Society.
Parimal Bandyopadhyay
Resident of: HA Block
Died on: August 23 The former bureaucrat was an authority on land and land reforms. He had served the government as director of land records and surveys, special secretary, land and land reforms department, and member of the record updation committee set up by the ministry of rural development. He later joined as an administrative member of West Bengal Land Reforms and Tenancy Tribunal, where he undertook a thorough judicial evaluation of the land reforms programme implemented in the state.