New Town, Kolkata

Geography

New Town is located at 22.5894°N 88.4748°E / 22.5894; 88.4748. This township covers an area of 28 km² (11 sq mi), and is located partly in Barasat Sadar subdivision of North 24 Parganas district and partly in South 24 Parganas district. It is part of the Kolkata Metropolitan Area.

Urban structure

Being a planned township, New Town has been divided into three areas: Action Area - I, mainly consisting of malls, a Sub-CBD, and planned residential and commercial plots; Action Area - II is supposedly planned to have a main central business district (CBD), institutional plots, IT Business Parks like DLF, TCS Gitanjali Park and Unitech, and plots for large apartment complexes, it will also house the Kolkata Museum of Modern Art, an open landscape with an Eco-park built around a water body; Action Area IIC has many residential housing projects like Hiland Woods, Akankha, Sunrise Point, Moonbeam Housing, Starlit etc.; Action Area - III mainly consists of high-rise residential complexes and mini sub-townships like Uniworld City and Sukhobristi and upscale gated residential communities such as DLF Newtown Heights, Shrachi's Rosedale, Unitech's Uniworld City, Tata's Eden Court and Keppel's Elita Garden Vista now being developed by a consortium of Sureka, Merlin and JB. Various educational institutes such as University of Engineering & Management, IIT Kharagpur, St Xaviers College and IT majors Infosys and Wipro have set up their campuses there, along with overseas firms like BT Group. A sprawling arts institute has already been set up.

Economy

New Town being three times the size of Salt Lake has emerged as the second IT hub of Kolkata. Already several IT majors are operational, while others like TCS (allotted 40 acres) and Wipro (allotted 45 acres) have been allotted space. Real estate companies like DLF, Bengal Unitech of Unitech Group, Shapoorji Pallonji, Tata group, Ambuja Realty, Bengal Peerless, Sureka Group etc. are involved in Commercial/Retail/Residential projects.

Some of the operational IT companies in New Town are: Cognizant, IBM, Genpact, Hewlett-Packard, Capgemini, Tech Mahindra, Ericsson, Accenture, Philips, HCL Technologies, Vodafone India, and BT Group.

Other IT and ITes companies include eRevMax, Aegis, Xoriant Corp. and many mid-to-small cap Tech firms, IT majors like TCS, Unitech Group and Wipro have also acquired prime land in New Town.

New Town has an under construction financial hub, known as the New Town Arbitration and Financial Hub, which is planned to house regional or national headquarters of several financial institutions.

World Trade Centre Kolkata is being built in New Town as well. Coal India has shifted its HQ to New Town and State Bank of India has taken up 10 acres of plots to set up its training campus.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is building a 20,000 capacity large SEZ in New Town, Rajarhat near Unitech, DLF2 and Ecospace building. The building is named as Gitanjali Tech Park. Many projects have moved to some completed parts of the building.

The DLF2 building houses companies notably, British Telecom (BT), Ericsson, IBM, Tech Mahindra etc.

The Ecospace building houses companies like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Reliance Telecom, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank etc.

Demographics

The city is planned for a population of 10 lakhs, however, as of December 2016, the residential population of New Town is estimated to be around 30,000. With the completion of the establishment and development of the township, the population of the area is poised for a significant increase. The sex ratio, literacy rate and every other regional statistics are expected to see radical changes within a few years. The existing populace was mainly engaged in subsistence agriculture, animal husbandry, and skilled and unskilled labour. The population intended to be settled here is the elite professional segment, the upper-middle and middle-classes. Also, non-resident Indians are investing in residential and commercial spaces. It will be a vibrant cosmopolitan demographic mix.

Civic administration and utility services

Civic administration is looked after by the New Town Kolkata Development Authority, a statutory body. The town is in the Barasat constituency and elects one member to the Lok Sabha (the Lower House of the Indian Parliament). The town area is covered by one assembly constituency, Rajarhat New Town, that elects one member to the Vidhan Sabha, which is the West Bengal state legislative assembly.

Utility services

As of 2015, New Town gets 200 lpcd of treated water every day with potable water that is sourced from the Hooghly River. Water treatment plants with computerised monitoring and control system are in place. 100% of the garbage is collected by sanitary workers through door to door collection. As of 2015, more than 70% of the solid waste management vehicles and street sweeping vehicles have been fitted with GPS devices for effective monitoring. All the garbage is compacted at compacting stations before disposing of it in dumping grounds.

Electricity is supplied by the privately operated New Town Electric Supply Company, or NTESCL. Fire services are handled by the West Bengal Fire Service, a state agency. The Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate looks after the law and order in the city.

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, or BSNL, as well as private enterprises, among them Vodafone, Bharti Airtel, Reliance, Idea Cellular, Aircel, Tata DoCoMo, Tata Teleservices, Virgin Mobile, and MTS India, are the leading telephone and cell phone service providers in the city. Kolkata being the first city in India to have cell phone and 4G connectivity, the GSM and CDMA cellular coverage is extensive in New Town.

Transport

The main mode of transportation, like other parts of Kolkata includes air conditioned, non-AC government and private buses, taxi, and other popular Indian transports like auto rickshaw and e-rickshaws. As of 2015, around 300 buses on 25 different bus routes, either passes through or originates from New Town. As of November 2016, the New Garia – Airport line of the Kolkata Metro is under-construction with cost inflation and delays There is also a plan to extend the Circular Railway from Bidhannagar Road (Ultadanga) to New Town via Lake Town and Salt Lake. The Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport is very near to the township, providing air connectivity to the rest of the world. Overall the area is being well planned with wide, thoughtfully planned roads and expressways.

Health care

Though some of the major hospitals are yet to be built, this area has good connectivity with other parts of Kolkata which have sophisticated health centres. A handful of million-dollar health care facilities are under projection, and most of them will be completed soon. The most notable to mention is the intensive care hospital, Tata Cancer Centre.

A couple of new hospitals like Ohio Heart Hospital, UMRI (Uma Medical Research Institute), AMRI Hospital, Park Hospital, Disha Eye Hospitals & Research Centre, Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute, Alo Eye Care exist here. Apollo Hospitals group will open a multi-specialty hospital in this area soon. Belle Vue will be opening its second clinic soon in Rajarhat. Health Care Global (HCG), a leading chain of Cancer Hospital will be very soon starting a Cancer Hospital in association with EKO PET- CT Institute.

Education

New Town has many educational institutions, from prep schools to a university. To aid its economy, the Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation, (HIDCO) has allotted land to at least 30 educational institutions covering over 150 acres of land. While many reputed colleges, universities and training institutes like Presidency University, St. Xaviers University, Rabindra Bharati University are in the process of establishing their second campuses, some of the institutes like University of Engineering & Management, Amity University, Aliah University and Techno India have already set up their campus and have started operations.

Lands are being allotted through e-tenders to campuses of several government and private institutes like Netaji Subhas Open University, Ganguly Educational Society, Bhawanipor Gujrati Education Society, IILM Foundation, West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company (WBSEDCL) Staff Training Centre, West Bengal State Council of Vocational Education and Training, State Social Welfare School in the township with land ranging from 2 acres to 10 acres. Besides these, a 20-acre land is also available on tenders to set up a government medical college and hospital.

Some of the educational and training institutes that are setting up their campuses in Rajarhat:

For the children, to study up to the 12th standard, New Town also houses many schools:

Leisure and entertainment

The area has one of the best entertainment facilities in the state of West Bengal. Apart from private clubs of various offices and estates, the area has a good number of children's parks and clubs. Notable mention among them is the New Town Eco Park opened in 2013, boasting of an area of 480 acres consisting of water sports, huge green areas, butterfly garden, an island in the middle of the lake, excellent walkways around the lake. A seniors park known as Swapno Bhar was opened in 2015.

Cultural centres which have been set up are Rabindra Tirtha, Nazrul Tirtha and a Vivek Tirtha is in the making. A wax museum modelled on the lines of Madame Tussauds in London has opened up, known as Mother's Wax Museum. An art centre called Arts Acre is present and another museum, Kolkata Museum of Modern Art is in the making.

Several shopping malls are being constructed in the area. Some of the shopping malls in New Town which are operating are City Centre 2, Axis Mall, and Home Town Mall. Some upcoming malls are Unitech Downtown Mall, Rajarhat Central Mall and Centrus Mall.

The operational five-star hotels in the town are Swissotel and Novotel. The Pride Group of hotels has a business hotel on the M.A.R, while other business hotels like The Pipal Tree is operational. Construction work of other five-star hotels such as Westin and three-star hotel, Holiday Inn are in progress.

Apart from the presence of Novotel, Swissotel and the Westin in New Town, there has been a proposal to set up another five-star hotel known as Eastin Easy Kolkata. Accor, which runs a hotel in Rajarhat under flagship brand Novotel, is planning to bring two more brands in the city - ibis and Formule 1