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Rajarhat New Town Kolkata
রাজারহাট নিউ টাউন
Satellite city
Apartment high-rises in New Town
Apartment high-rises in New Town
Rajarhat New Town Kolkata is located in West Bengal
Rajarhat New Town Kolkata
Rajarhat New Town Kolkata
Location in West Bengal, India
Coordinates: 22°00′N 88°17′E / 22°N 88.28°E / 22; 88.28Coordinates: 22°00′N 88°17′E / 22°N 88.28°E / 22; 88.28
Country  India
State West Bengal
District North 24 Parganas
Government
 • Type Municipal corporation
 • Body Bidhannagar municipal corporation
Population (2011)
 • Total 402,844
Languages
 • Official Bengali, English
Time zone IST (UTC+5:30)
PIN 700156, 700157
Telephone code Calcutta Telephone
Nearest city Kolkata
Sex ratio 939 ♂/♀
Literacy 76%
Lok Sabha constituency Barasat
Vidhan Sabha constituency Rajarhat New Town
Website

www.nkdamar.org

www.wbhidcoltd.com

New Town, a neighbourhood of Kolkata (earlier, Calcutta), located in North 24 Parganas district of the Indian state of West Bengal, is a fast-growing planned satellite city. This new information technology and residential hub is being developed on the north-eastern fringes of Kolkata. It consists of the two erstwhile villages Rajarhat and Bhangar, which is now a statutory planned development area. The area mainly consisted of huge acres of cultivable lands and water bodies, which have been acquired and developed in a planned manner. The process of investing for residential and industrial facilities and infrastructural development of the area has mainly started under the leadership of the then Chief Minister of West Bengal Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in the late 1990s. The master plan envisions a township which is at least three times bigger than the neighbouring planned Salt Lake City. The New Town (Rajarhat) has been also declared as a Solar City by the previous UPA government at the Centre and now the initiatives are being taken to declare this city as Smart Green City, a dream project of Narendra Modi (Prime Minister of India) with the help of Government of West Bengal according to a proposal submitted by Mamata Banerjee (Chief Minister of West Bengal).[1]

The New Town Kolkata was enabled with 10.5 km of Wi-Fi Zone connecting the Rajarhat Main Arterial Road to the airport to Sector V, which also make it India's first Wi-Fi road connectivity. The stretch has already been declared as a green corridor.[2]

Geography[edit]

New Town is located at 22°21′N 88°17′E / 22.35°N 88.28°E / 22.35; 88.28.[3] This township covers an area of 28 km2 (11 sq mi),[4] and is located in Barasat Sadar subdivision of North 24 Parganas district.

Urban structure[edit]

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 and Unitech, and plots for large apartment complexes, it will also house the Kolkata Museum of Modern Art, an open landscape with an Ecopark 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 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[edit]

DLF IT Park, New Town

New Town being three times the size of Salt lake have been allotted 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, Singapore based Keppel Land, Ambuja Realty, Bengal Peerless, Sureka Group etc. are involved in Commercial/Retail/Residential projects.[5][6]

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 and their facilities will be ready soon. The Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) SEZ facility is going to open in 2015.

New Town has a financial hub known as New Town Arbitration and Financial Hub. The following institutions have taken up land till the date of 8 June 2015:

Others:

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 half complete building.

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

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

Panorama from Ecospace (Far Right) to DLF2 (Left) via TCS Gitanjali Tech Park in New Town, Rajarhat, Kolkata at Night.

Education[edit]

The New Town School, New Town, Rajarhat, Kolkata
The University of Engineering & Management in front of Uniworld City, New Town, Rajarhat, Kolkata

The New Town, Rajarhat 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 approaching for their second campuses, some of the institutes like 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 top educational and training institutes that are setting up their campuses in Rajarhat:


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

Demographics[edit]

New Town is a newly established township, consisting of gated high-rise apartment complexes. In this image, Uniworld City, a mini-township

As per the 2011 census, Rajarhat had a total population of 402,844 persons, Males constitute 50.55% of the population and females 49%.[8] Rajarhat has an average literacy rate of 73.49%. 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 will therefore see radical changes within a few years. The existing populace is 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.

Health care[edit]

HIDCO Bhawan , located in the New Town CBD

Though some of the major hospitals are yet to be built, this area has good connectivity with other parts of Calcutta which have sophisticated health centers. 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 and state-of-the-art Tata Cancer Centre.

Couple of new hospitals like Ohio Heart Hospital is under construction and, UMRI (Uma Medical Research Institute), AMRI Hospital , Park Hospital , Disha Eye Hospitals & Research Centre, Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute, Alo Eye Care etc. exist here. Apollo Hospitals group will open a multi-specialty hospital in this area soon. Belle Vue will be opening it's 2nd clinic soon in Rajarhat.

Transport[edit]

Major arterial road

The main mode of transportation, like other parts of Kolkata includes air conditioned, non-AC government and private buses, taxi, and other popular India transports like auto rickshaw. However, the buses are sporadic and the routes originating out are very few. The New Garia – Airport line of the Kolkata Metro is supposed to pass through New Town by 2014.[9][10] There is also a plan to extend the Circular Railway from Bidhannagar Road (Ultadanga) to New Town via lake town and salt lake.[11] 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.

Leisure and entertainment[edit]

Axis Mall
The City Centre II and Swissotel Kolkata,New Town.

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 those will be a water park called Aquatica; a good children's park called Nicco Park; a huge picnic spot consisting of waterbodies called Nalban ; and a club for adults with traditional Indian yoga and spa facilities, called Vedic Village. In 2013, New Town Eco Park opened, boasting of an area of 480 acre consisting of water sports, huge green areas, butterfly garden,an island on the middle of the lake, excellent walkways around etc. A seniors park known as Swapno Bhar will soon be opening.

Cultural centres which have been set up are Rabindra Tirtha, Nazrul Tirtha and a Vivek Tirtha is in the making. A wax museum modeled 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 known as 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.Upcoming mall are Unitech Downtown Mall, Rajarhat Central Mall and Centrus Mall.

International five-star hotels like ITC Sonar , Taj Gateway, Hyatt Regency are situated nearby. Further upcoming new hotels nearby are ITC Sonar 2 and JW Marriott.

The operational five-star hotels in the town are Swissotel Kolkata Neotia Vista 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 is 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.

See also[edit]

Gallery[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/West-Bengal-seeks-smart-green-city-tag-for-New-Town/articleshow/37867094.cms
  2. ^ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/10-5km-Wi-Fi-zone-in-Rajarhat-New-Town/articleshow/36728018.cms
  3. ^ "Yahoo maps location of New Town". Yahoo maps. Retrieved 2008-12-07. 
  4. ^ "Rajarhat Gopalpur Municipality". Official website of the Department of Municipal Affairs, Government of West Bengal. Retrieved 2008-12-07. 
  5. ^ "Real Estate boom in New Town...!!". PressReleasePoint. 2009-08-21. Retrieved 2012-07-23. 
  6. ^ "Wipro accepts West Bengal’s land proposal (Lead) - Thaindian News". Thaindian.com. 2009-12-10. Retrieved 2012-07-23. 
  7. ^ "Times of India on Education in Now Town, Rajarhat, Kolkata". Retrieved 23 August 2015. 
  8. ^ "Rajarhat Population". Census of India, Government of India. Retrieved 22 December 2014. 
  9. ^ "Rail set to take over East-West". The Telegraph. Feb 8, 2011. Retrieved 26 September 2011. 
  10. ^ "Hidco clears route for Garia-airport Metro". Times of India. Sep 25, 2011. Retrieved 26 September 2011. 
  11. ^ "Metro - Urban - Suburban Systems". IRFCA. Retrieved 26 September 2011. 

External links[edit]

Development hubs in West Bengal
source: https://web.archive.org/web/20151025072517/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajarhat

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