A view of the dining area at Swapno Bhor senior citizens park. Sudeshna Banerjee

They have always had spacious lawns, ample car parking space and sometimes even water bodies as an added attraction. But when it came to holding wedding ceremonies, many New Town residents traditionally preferred to move festivities to Salt Lake. The tides, however, are gradually turning.

When Hasi Maitra, a resident of New Town’s Sree apartments, was organising her daughter’s wedding four years ago, she held the ashirbad ceremony at the community hall of the nearby Utsa apartments. But for the wedding, they shifted to GD community hall in Salt Lake.

“The Utsa hall wasn’t big enough for the wedding and back then there weren’t bigger venues in New Town,” Maitra explains. Also, guests were more familiar with Salt Lake. Many would have had second thoughts about coming to New Town at night, that was perceived to be far away,” she says.

Too far in the mind

When a UK-based friend asked Anuradha Biswas to suggest venues to hold her baby’s annaprashan in, she named the Eco Park island. “They loved the venue but couldn’t go ahead with it,” says Biswas, a resident of Mallika Malancha. “Their family had many elderly relatives who weren’t app cab-friendly. These relatives would find it difficult to reach the venue and would have bailed out.”

When Jaideep Bhowmik, a resident of Uniworld City, was planning a wedding for his US-based nephew, he had considered holding it at his own community centre or at New Town Business Club but finally settled for a star hotel in Salt Lake.

“New Town is not that much further than Salt Lake but the rest of the city has a mental block about it,” he explains. “We have better roads, are less crowded and have more spacious venues but guests would not want to come over. Also, the caterers here, though good, need time to build a reputation. Give us a few years and we’ll overtake Salt Lake,” he smiles.

Residents feel popular tourist spots like Eco Park and Mother’s Wax Museum are familiarising visitors to the township and changing the perception of it being at the other end of the world.

New halls

New Town is working hard to lose the “far away” and “too-few venues” tags. “There are 52 wedding days in a year so there’s huge pressure on venues and people approach us for any open space they can find,” says Debashis Sen, chairman cum managing director of Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco), that is in charge of the township.

“So we have come up with wedding venues to cater to all segments of the market. The Eco Park island and Mishtika, next to Eco Park’s gate 1, are the most high-end but there are also less expensive venues at the amphitheatre and the “food court” near the Eco Park golf course, at New Town Business Club and Swapno Bhor senior citizens’ park. We are also letting out the fair ground. That works out the cheapest.”

The business club banquet can accommodate 500 people now but a soon-to-open green verge there will accommodate over 1,000.

All these government-owned venues are designed for revenue earning, especially the ones at Eco Park. “At Swapno Bhor, we realised we could earn by letting space out and this would sustain operational costs. When it proved successful, we made a separate entrance there for weddings,” says Sen.

Most housing complexes have their own halls but they are often not spacious enough for weddings. Those living in co-operatives do not have halls at all. “Some of us hold weddings on the ground floor parking space and terrace of our co-operative buildings,” says Partha Pratim Gupta, a resident of a BA Block co-operative behind Central mall.

Residents of such complexes have been requesting the authorities for community halls following the Salt Lake model and Sen promises something in the pipeline. “We shall build halls to cater — not to each block but — to a larger area around them. We have already floated tenders for a hall each in Action Area I and II. Action Area III will get one once its population grows.”

Turning tides

The better-connected New Town venues fare well already. “I was apprehensive about people not being able to come to New Town for my wedding when I chose a venue — Agora banquet — inside Axis Mall,” says Tamoghna Nath of CE Block. “It worked. The guest list was 360 and the actual turnout was 365!” he laughs.

The combined community hall of Eastern High, Eastern Grove and Eastern Nook apartments is popular too, and its strategic location has much to do with it.

New Town Business Club, one of the most popular venues in the township. Sudeshna Banerjee

“We’re located bang opposite New Town bus terminal so guests find it easy to get here. The hall houses 300 people and the view from the second floor terrace is excellent too,” says Monica Roy, a resident who also is on their board of directors.

The Das family of Rail Vihar held their son’s reception at the business club last month. “We had the option of hosting it at a hotel or at Eco Park but both were far from our house so we chose the club,” says Saswati Das, the groom’s sister. “Our complex has a hall too but the lawn outside wasn’t big enough. The business club, though a tad difficult to reach for those without private transport, worked out best.” The club required food to be catered by Café Ekante but the Dases were happy with the quality.

Jayanta Saha, a resident of CE Block who held his son’s reception at Swapno Bhor in January, would have liked options with decorators. “There was only one decorator empanelled and we had to use him. We had to play the shehnai very softly too so as to not disturb neighbours,” he says.

Residents of BF Block, adjacent to Swapno Bhor, remember spending sleepless nights thanks to the loudspeakers and celebratory crackers being burst at weddings. “Smoke from their generators would billow into our homes and our lanes would be blocked with the guests’ cars,” says Shyamapada Gupta, president of the block committee. “We had to complain to the authorities but our grievances have been addressed now.”

Looking up

Some feel New Town has a bright future in hosding wedding receptions due to all the open space it has. “One cannot emphasise the value of parking space enough,” says Mukund Bajaj, executive director, finance, The Stadel in Salt Lake. “Five star hotels lose out when they fail to provide parking space for the hundreds of guests. That way, New Town is better off.”

But Sumanta Maity, general manager of Golden Tulip in Salt Lake, feels there is another reason why New Town families are choosing to shift their ceremonies to hotels slightly away from home.

“It’s not easy catering to the whims of the relatives who land up for weddings. One has to arrange their food, laundry, housekeeping, sight-seeing... These days many New Town families are shifting into our hotel during the wedding so they get professional help,” says Maity.

So they’re offering combo packages for the banquet hall, guest rooms as well as all the meals while the guests stay over.