Bidhan Nagar, Kolkata
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Bidhan Nagar (Bengali বিধান নগর), or Salt Lake as it is popularly called, is a planned satellite township developed between 1956 and 1962 to accommodate the booming population of Kolkata. Dr.Bidhan Chandra Roy, then the Chief Minister of West Bengal, was instrumental in formulating the plan to build a satellite residential area on this once swampy stretch of land on the eastern fringe of the city. It is now a hub of economic and social expansion and is famous as the centre for IT in the city. The township is called Bidhan Nagar in Bengali in honour of Dr B.C Ray, and also shares it's name with its namesake city in the United States on account of the story of it's origin.
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[edit] Development
The tremendous pressure of accommodating the ever-increasing population of Kolkata contributed to the emergence of the idea of a planned township in the suburbs of the city. The second Chief Minister of West Bengal Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy came up with the idea of satellite townships. Salt Lake City, later was renamed Bidhan Nagar(Bengali: Nagar= City) as a mark of recognition to one of its founders, Dr. Roy.
Bhabanath Sen, a Bengali landlord had taken the present Salt Lake area on lease from 1869 to 1956. By May 19th 1956, the Government had taken over and then gradually Salt Lake started taking shape. A Yugoslav firm was entrusted with the reclamation work of the water-filled area. Five-mile long pipes were laid down from Ghushuri to Salt Lake for sand filling. It took 7 years to fill up the 15 km². of land with sand water, which was once a very fertile fishing zone. On 16th of April, 1962 the Salt Lake City was born.
The development of the area was divided into "sectors". By 1965, Sector-I was complete and by 1969, Sector-II and Sector-III were ready for occupancy. Then came up the Industrial Sectors IV and V (the location of the IT industries). The 12.52 km². area of the town initially comprised of 12873 plots of land apart from 87 housing estates and blocks. The land area has almost doubled now with the incorporation of Duttabad, Sukantanagar, Nayapatti and Mahishbathan areas.
[edit] Authority
Bidhan Nagar was originally under the South Dum Dum Municipality; it then came under the wings of Housing and Urban Development Corporation(HUDCO) of the West Bengal government and subsequently in 1989, a Notified Area Authority was set up. Ultimately 1992 onwards, Salt Lake has come under the wings of its own Municipal Authority. This salt lake is further extending by the inclusion of newly constructed Rajarhat and New town. New town not also support huge number of tall building but also facilitating IT companies with the Infrastructure.
[edit] Facilities
Being a planned city, Salt Lake offers many facilities usually not available in many of the other older Indian cities. It has clean and well-maintained roads and sanitation, tree-clad boulevards, relatively pollution free environment, its own swimming pool, a large number of schools, the largest sports stadium in India the Yuva Bharati Krirangan,modern shopping malls such as City Centre, INOX multiplex, an amusement park, the Netaji Subhas Sports Institute, a 5-star hotel (Hyatt Regency) and a vast array of municipal offices that cater not only to the local town but to the entire city of Calcutta. Originally, Salt Lake had been designed to accommodate the entire administrative apparatus of greater Calcutta, but this idea was dropped early during the planning phase.
Bidhan Nagar is home to several academic, research and professsional institutions. The Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, The Variable Energy Cyclotron and the Satyendra Nath Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences offer research facilities. The Bidhannagar College, The Technical Teacher's Training Institute, the College of Leather Technology, the Administrative Training Institute and Jadavpur University's second campus, the West Bengal University of Technology, the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, the Calcutta campus of IIT Kharagpur, the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information Technology, the National Institute of Fashion Technology, the National Institute of Homeopathy,indian institute of science education and reseach kolkata (temporarily) and several management and engineering colleges and other institutions are located in the township.
Apart from this of course there are police stations, electricity offices, etc. However poor street lighting has made petty theft and eve teasing a recurrent problem.
Salt Lake is also home to Central Park, the largest park in the urban area after the Maidan. Like the town it is situated in, it too has a more famous namesake in USA.
[edit] Further Development
It has recently been announced that a new township thrice the size of Salt Lake has been planned further east in Rajarhat under the name of New Town.
[edit] See also
- Bidhan Chandra Roy
- Yuva Bharati Krirangan
- West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences
- West Bengal University of Technology
[edit] External links
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