Jay Engineering to end losses
NEW DELHI, Aug 18 (PTI) — The Jay Engineering Works Ltd, part of Siddharth Shriram group, expects to wipe out its accumulated losses and come out of the purview of the BIFR in the next 12 to 18 months.
“Infusion of fresh funds by the promoters and financial institutions along with re-location of its production facility, and cost cutting measures will help the company wipe out its accumulated losses,” Chairman of the company Siddharth Shriram told newspersons here today.
The company’s accumulated losses as on March 31, 1998 stood at Rs 77 crore as against Rs 85 crore reported in the previous year.
As part of rehabilitation and revival scheme proposed by the BIFR, Rs 33 crore would be brought in by the Siel Ltd, promoter of the company, Rs 15.5 crore by financial institutions and Rs 30 crore by selling land in West Bengal.
The company plans to develop and invest in its fans business, tool lines and paint shops in the coming years. It has also shifted its fan and sewing factories to a single location to reduce cost.
“We have shifted sewing and fans factory to Gurgaon in July this year and the impact of it would be visible in the next quarter,” Shriram said.
The group plans to invest Rs 25 crore in developing its existing factories as well as building marketing infrastructure of Usha International, another group company, Siddharth Shriram said.
Usha International markets the products of Jay Engineering under the “Usha” brand owned by it.
Siel has already brought in, as part of the rehabilitation scheme proposed by BIFR, Rs 18 crore by subscribing to 1.1 crore shares of Rs 10 each at par aggregating Rs 11 crore and seven lakh 10 per cent redeemable preference shares of Rs 100 aggregating Rs 7 crore in January this year.
After the infusion of the money, Jay Engineering has become a subsidiary of Siel Ltd.
On future plans for the company, Shriram said, “our thrust would be the small appliances and we are expecting an annual growth rate of 25 per cent.”
Jay Engineering had reported a net loss of Rs 95 lakh in the first quarter of the current year compared to Rs 2.30 crore during the similar period last year.
The company had reported a net profit of Rs 7.64 crore on sales of Rs 158 crore compared to a loss of Rs 21.85 crore in 1996-97 on sales of Rs 149 crore.
Saturday 2 December 2006
This Is What Leading Newspapers Have To Say: The Telegraph, Calcutta
From The Telegraph, Thursday July 24 2003
RED FLAGS AND RED LIGHTS
No matter how peeved Bengal’s leftists feel at the prime minister’s remark, it is impossible to deny the economic decline of the state, writes Alok Ray
No love lost
The recent remarks of the prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on West Bengal’s economic decline, and the strong counter-attack by the chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, have stirred up an old debate. A heated controversy was triggered by the remark of the former prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, when he proclaimed that Calcutta is a dying city. The response, in true Bengali fashion, was that Calcutta was the cradle of the 19th century Indian renaissance and hence, such a remark was unwarranted from anyone, least of all the prime minister. What many did not realize was that harping only on past achievements actually strengthens the perception that Calcutta was once a great and vibrant city but has lost, or is losing, its glory. In any case, few would doubt the fact of Bengal’s and Calcutta’s economic decline, if not a cultural one. So, the question remains: who or what are responsible for Bengal’s economic slide down over the years?
Many factors have contributed to the decline in a cumulative way. The first was the shifting of India’s capital from Calcutta to Delhi in 1912. Immediately, Calcutta and Bengal lost its proximity to the centre of political power and decision-making in India. Since then, no new infrastructure development project was undertaken in Calcutta as long as the British ruled.
The next major setback was the Partition of India. Bengal and Punjab were the two worst sufferers. The jute mills were in West Bengal, but the jute growing areas fell mostly in East Bengal (then East Pakistan). Many of Bengal’s gentry lost their landed property in East Bengal. This brought about an economic decline for those families. Most importantly, Partition led to a huge influx of refugees to Calcutta and its neighbourhood. This put stress on Calcutta’s infrastructure, causing unemployment to skyrocket and forced many state enterprises like the Calcutta State Transport Corporation to absorb them almost as a part of the refugee rehabilitation programme.
The refugees became easy political cannon-fodder which made Calcutta “the city of processions” and bandhs — a nightmare for industrial capital. The overpopulation problem led to the growth of slums all over the city and its suburbs. Unlike Punjab where the population flows were both ways, the influx of refugees into West Bengal far outweighed migration to East Pakistan.
Another landmark was the demise of a visionary leader like B.C. Roy. Both Durgapur and Salt Lake — the two most significant post-independence industrial-urban developments in Bengal — are the fruits of Roy’s vision and initiative.
The left-dominated United Front coalition government, which came to power in the Sixties, was mostly composed of trade union leaders who considered industrial capital and management as enemies of labour. This led to a period of gheraos and physical intimidation of company officials, often openly supported by the parties in power. Investment and capital began to flee from Bengal. This was further accelerated by the growth of the Naxalite movement.
On top of all these came the freight price equalization policy. The freight rates by Indian railways were adjusted in a way that there would be no locational advantage for any state. This policy neutralized the traditional advantage that the Bengal-Bihar industrial belt enjoyed due to the local availability of coal and iron ore.
The Jyoti Basu-led Left Front-coalition government which ruled the state for more than 25 years could not arrest the decline. No doubt Bengal suffered in terms of allocation of resources by the Central government as most of the time, political parties which were at loggerheads with the left ruled at the Centre. But, that is not the full explanation of why the left failed. Basu (and his colleagues) could not forsake the mindset of a trade union leader or of the leader of the opposition, until towards the fag end of his political career. But the damage to the image of Bengal for investors has already been done. Some progress was made in the rural economy in terms of land reforms and the panchayati raj which incidentally helped the left stay in power for such a long time. But no such bold initiatives were forthcoming to improve the investment climate of the state. State-sponsored bandhs became part of the state’s culture. The administration became highly politicized, work culture and discipline continued their downhill journey, and the urban infrastructure (despite the Metro Rail, the Vidyasagar Setu and of late, a few flyovers) in Calcutta and the suburbs failed to boost investment.
A lot of prime land around the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass was sold or leased out to people (often non-resident Indians) for setting up industries, but only a few of them materialized. It seems that the “investors” were primarily interested in acquiring prime land at throw-away government prices and later transfer them at higher prices. The left’s proud claims of the climate of communal harmony in the state does not cut much ice among potential investors. The power situation is better in Bengal compared to many other states. But the main reason for this this is the relatively low demand for power here, with hardly any new factories coming up. While the per capita annual consumption of electricity in West Bengal is around 200 kilowatt hour, the same is above 900 in Punjab, 800 in Gujarat and 500 in Tamil Nadu.
The economic decline of Calcutta has also affected the quality of its prime institutions. These days, only Bengalis or people with strong roots in Bengal decide to stay in Calcutta. A prime instance of this is the fact that less than 20 per cent of the faculty of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, an all-India institute, are from outside the state. The same would be broadly true of the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, which once drew faculty from all over the world. This sets off a vicious cycle. Bengal is getting distanced from the rest of India and the world. Some of the best minds of Bengal have left the state and few from other places are coming to the state. This can only breed a narrow outlook and an insular feeling of being content with the little we have. This is how villages decline.
Is there no hope for Bengal’s economic future? There are only two bright spots in the prevailing gloom. One, the new chief minister, who seems sincere in his efforts. Second, the success of the Chinese experiment. Our local leftists find it easier to follow whatever the Chinese (earlier the Russians) are doing, even if the path is a market-oriented capitalist one. Hopefully, the pragmatism of Chinese communists will rub off on our local comrades.
I recently attended an international conference in China. As part of the programme, we were taken to visit an industrial plant. We were told that the plant, which manufactured lifts and escalators, started with 20 per cent foreign and 80 per cent domestic capital. But now, the foreign ownership has been increased to 80 per cent. I asked whether the socialist government took kindly to the drastic increase in foreign ownership. The manager looked surprised and replied that it was an arrangement between two private owners. Both the local and the foreign partners found it advantageous. Why should the government object? As long as it is getting the taxes? Does this have a few lessons for the communist leaders of West Bengal?
____________
High and rising
Housing complexes are coming up like there’s no tomorrow and the city’s landscape is being altered dramatically, reports Debashis Bhattacharyya
RED FLAGS AND RED LIGHTS
No matter how peeved Bengal’s leftists feel at the prime minister’s remark, it is impossible to deny the economic decline of the state, writes Alok Ray
No love lost
The recent remarks of the prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on West Bengal’s economic decline, and the strong counter-attack by the chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, have stirred up an old debate. A heated controversy was triggered by the remark of the former prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, when he proclaimed that Calcutta is a dying city. The response, in true Bengali fashion, was that Calcutta was the cradle of the 19th century Indian renaissance and hence, such a remark was unwarranted from anyone, least of all the prime minister. What many did not realize was that harping only on past achievements actually strengthens the perception that Calcutta was once a great and vibrant city but has lost, or is losing, its glory. In any case, few would doubt the fact of Bengal’s and Calcutta’s economic decline, if not a cultural one. So, the question remains: who or what are responsible for Bengal’s economic slide down over the years?
Many factors have contributed to the decline in a cumulative way. The first was the shifting of India’s capital from Calcutta to Delhi in 1912. Immediately, Calcutta and Bengal lost its proximity to the centre of political power and decision-making in India. Since then, no new infrastructure development project was undertaken in Calcutta as long as the British ruled.
The next major setback was the Partition of India. Bengal and Punjab were the two worst sufferers. The jute mills were in West Bengal, but the jute growing areas fell mostly in East Bengal (then East Pakistan). Many of Bengal’s gentry lost their landed property in East Bengal. This brought about an economic decline for those families. Most importantly, Partition led to a huge influx of refugees to Calcutta and its neighbourhood. This put stress on Calcutta’s infrastructure, causing unemployment to skyrocket and forced many state enterprises like the Calcutta State Transport Corporation to absorb them almost as a part of the refugee rehabilitation programme.
The refugees became easy political cannon-fodder which made Calcutta “the city of processions” and bandhs — a nightmare for industrial capital. The overpopulation problem led to the growth of slums all over the city and its suburbs. Unlike Punjab where the population flows were both ways, the influx of refugees into West Bengal far outweighed migration to East Pakistan.
Another landmark was the demise of a visionary leader like B.C. Roy. Both Durgapur and Salt Lake — the two most significant post-independence industrial-urban developments in Bengal — are the fruits of Roy’s vision and initiative.
The left-dominated United Front coalition government, which came to power in the Sixties, was mostly composed of trade union leaders who considered industrial capital and management as enemies of labour. This led to a period of gheraos and physical intimidation of company officials, often openly supported by the parties in power. Investment and capital began to flee from Bengal. This was further accelerated by the growth of the Naxalite movement.
On top of all these came the freight price equalization policy. The freight rates by Indian railways were adjusted in a way that there would be no locational advantage for any state. This policy neutralized the traditional advantage that the Bengal-Bihar industrial belt enjoyed due to the local availability of coal and iron ore.
The Jyoti Basu-led Left Front-coalition government which ruled the state for more than 25 years could not arrest the decline. No doubt Bengal suffered in terms of allocation of resources by the Central government as most of the time, political parties which were at loggerheads with the left ruled at the Centre. But, that is not the full explanation of why the left failed. Basu (and his colleagues) could not forsake the mindset of a trade union leader or of the leader of the opposition, until towards the fag end of his political career. But the damage to the image of Bengal for investors has already been done. Some progress was made in the rural economy in terms of land reforms and the panchayati raj which incidentally helped the left stay in power for such a long time. But no such bold initiatives were forthcoming to improve the investment climate of the state. State-sponsored bandhs became part of the state’s culture. The administration became highly politicized, work culture and discipline continued their downhill journey, and the urban infrastructure (despite the Metro Rail, the Vidyasagar Setu and of late, a few flyovers) in Calcutta and the suburbs failed to boost investment.
A lot of prime land around the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass was sold or leased out to people (often non-resident Indians) for setting up industries, but only a few of them materialized. It seems that the “investors” were primarily interested in acquiring prime land at throw-away government prices and later transfer them at higher prices. The left’s proud claims of the climate of communal harmony in the state does not cut much ice among potential investors. The power situation is better in Bengal compared to many other states. But the main reason for this this is the relatively low demand for power here, with hardly any new factories coming up. While the per capita annual consumption of electricity in West Bengal is around 200 kilowatt hour, the same is above 900 in Punjab, 800 in Gujarat and 500 in Tamil Nadu.
The economic decline of Calcutta has also affected the quality of its prime institutions. These days, only Bengalis or people with strong roots in Bengal decide to stay in Calcutta. A prime instance of this is the fact that less than 20 per cent of the faculty of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, an all-India institute, are from outside the state. The same would be broadly true of the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, which once drew faculty from all over the world. This sets off a vicious cycle. Bengal is getting distanced from the rest of India and the world. Some of the best minds of Bengal have left the state and few from other places are coming to the state. This can only breed a narrow outlook and an insular feeling of being content with the little we have. This is how villages decline.
Is there no hope for Bengal’s economic future? There are only two bright spots in the prevailing gloom. One, the new chief minister, who seems sincere in his efforts. Second, the success of the Chinese experiment. Our local leftists find it easier to follow whatever the Chinese (earlier the Russians) are doing, even if the path is a market-oriented capitalist one. Hopefully, the pragmatism of Chinese communists will rub off on our local comrades.
I recently attended an international conference in China. As part of the programme, we were taken to visit an industrial plant. We were told that the plant, which manufactured lifts and escalators, started with 20 per cent foreign and 80 per cent domestic capital. But now, the foreign ownership has been increased to 80 per cent. I asked whether the socialist government took kindly to the drastic increase in foreign ownership. The manager looked surprised and replied that it was an arrangement between two private owners. Both the local and the foreign partners found it advantageous. Why should the government object? As long as it is getting the taxes? Does this have a few lessons for the communist leaders of West Bengal?
____________
The Telegraph Friday Oct 10 2003
Rally’s forgotten soldiers
SUNANDO SARKAR
Calcutta, Oct. 9: Nripen Biswas used to be at the forefront of rallies and meetings to save Beni Engineering in the mid-1980s. A card-holder of the Citu till two years ago, he still writes slogans on the wall, exhorting people to “rally against imperialism, globalisation and liberalisation”, for the CPM.
But he firmly opposes rallies, he says, explaining that his wall-writing is a “residential hazard” — he lives in Kamarhati where red flags outnumber others as they flutter atop shut factory gates.
Yesterday, at the “mass convention” in Mahajati Sadan, Left Front leaders said they would go on with rallies and strikes as these were the “last weapons for those without jobs because of the Centre’s liberalisation policy”. Calling rallies a “right earned by struggle”, they refused to let them go without a fight.
Today, The Telegraph visited an area (in the northern suburbs) where industry once thrived. Many are now shut — they stopped manufacturing years before the “Centre’s liberalisation policy” started — and every neighbourhood has a few jobless homes. They are the ones whose misfortune lends “legitimacy” to rallies and processions, according to the front leadership.
Among the dispossessed, who live on the fringes of the city and of its consciousness, rallies have lost meaning. Everyone who spoke (some names are changed because of “residential” and other hazards they may face) said rallies had stopped serving their purpose and they — the jobless — should not be dragged into a controversy that was not theirs.
Take Biswas, for instance. He saw Beni Engineering close down, first in June 1978, and then sputter back to life before dying finally in 1987. “Five unions (including Citu) colluded with the management to shut the factory and then steal its assets.”
“As one of the movers behind the innumerable ‘movements’, I now realise how we were duped by our leadership,” he added.
“If they served any purpose, I wouldn’t have been reduced to selling my wedding rings.”
Usha (that made motor parts till 1987) was another factory that closed down pre-liberalisation. It shut after labour problems over dearness allowance.
Ram Lal and Parmatma Singh, two of the 686-member workforce, regretted the circumstances in which the shutdown occurred. “Rallies used to take place everyday to whip up support for ‘our’ cause,” they said.
“No one now bothers to enquire about us,” Singh said. “Rallies are still organised by our zonal (Citu) leadership but we have stopped going there,” Lal added. “Bahut bharosa kiya (We had a lot of faith) but it was misplaced,” Singh — surviving on odd jobs — added.
U.K. Sengupta, a former employee of Kamala Engineering — one of BT Road’s smokestacks that have stopped belching smoke — agreed. He did not witness any union shenanigans first hand but, from whatever he had seen, he suspected if workers had gained anything from rallies.
“As a worker, I feel that those who use us as shields to deflect criticism against disruptive rallies are doing a great disservice to the working community,” he added.
Angelo Brothers was a lac-making firm that saw labour problems — starting in the early 1980s — shut it down in the mid-1990s. As security officer, Navdeep Singh saw how the union helped in pilfering the company’s machines, besides holding rallies and meetings.
“If they were really any solution, Angelo — 98 per cent of its produce was exported — and the other shutdown factories would have been humming with activity right now,” he said.
_______
From The Telegraph - Sunday July 24 2005Rally’s forgotten soldiers
SUNANDO SARKAR
Calcutta, Oct. 9: Nripen Biswas used to be at the forefront of rallies and meetings to save Beni Engineering in the mid-1980s. A card-holder of the Citu till two years ago, he still writes slogans on the wall, exhorting people to “rally against imperialism, globalisation and liberalisation”, for the CPM.
But he firmly opposes rallies, he says, explaining that his wall-writing is a “residential hazard” — he lives in Kamarhati where red flags outnumber others as they flutter atop shut factory gates.
Yesterday, at the “mass convention” in Mahajati Sadan, Left Front leaders said they would go on with rallies and strikes as these were the “last weapons for those without jobs because of the Centre’s liberalisation policy”. Calling rallies a “right earned by struggle”, they refused to let them go without a fight.
Today, The Telegraph visited an area (in the northern suburbs) where industry once thrived. Many are now shut — they stopped manufacturing years before the “Centre’s liberalisation policy” started — and every neighbourhood has a few jobless homes. They are the ones whose misfortune lends “legitimacy” to rallies and processions, according to the front leadership.
Among the dispossessed, who live on the fringes of the city and of its consciousness, rallies have lost meaning. Everyone who spoke (some names are changed because of “residential” and other hazards they may face) said rallies had stopped serving their purpose and they — the jobless — should not be dragged into a controversy that was not theirs.
Take Biswas, for instance. He saw Beni Engineering close down, first in June 1978, and then sputter back to life before dying finally in 1987. “Five unions (including Citu) colluded with the management to shut the factory and then steal its assets.”
“As one of the movers behind the innumerable ‘movements’, I now realise how we were duped by our leadership,” he added.
“If they served any purpose, I wouldn’t have been reduced to selling my wedding rings.”
Usha (that made motor parts till 1987) was another factory that closed down pre-liberalisation. It shut after labour problems over dearness allowance.
Ram Lal and Parmatma Singh, two of the 686-member workforce, regretted the circumstances in which the shutdown occurred. “Rallies used to take place everyday to whip up support for ‘our’ cause,” they said.
“No one now bothers to enquire about us,” Singh said. “Rallies are still organised by our zonal (Citu) leadership but we have stopped going there,” Lal added. “Bahut bharosa kiya (We had a lot of faith) but it was misplaced,” Singh — surviving on odd jobs — added.
U.K. Sengupta, a former employee of Kamala Engineering — one of BT Road’s smokestacks that have stopped belching smoke — agreed. He did not witness any union shenanigans first hand but, from whatever he had seen, he suspected if workers had gained anything from rallies.
“As a worker, I feel that those who use us as shields to deflect criticism against disruptive rallies are doing a great disservice to the working community,” he added.
Angelo Brothers was a lac-making firm that saw labour problems — starting in the early 1980s — shut it down in the mid-1990s. As security officer, Navdeep Singh saw how the union helped in pilfering the company’s machines, besides holding rallies and meetings.
“If they were really any solution, Angelo — 98 per cent of its produce was exported — and the other shutdown factories would have been humming with activity right now,” he said.
_______
High and rising
Housing complexes are coming up like there’s no tomorrow and the city’s landscape is being altered dramatically, reports Debashis Bhattacharyya
On either side of the 20-km Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, which links Calcutta’s airport and the eastern part of the city to the south, buildings tower into the sky. A decade ago, this was a vast expanse of marshy land. Today, scores of labourers and giant cranes are at work here. Skeletal scaffolding and hordes of billboards that advertise housing projects with rooftop gardens, swimming pools and clubs have become part of the city’s landscape. Nor is this construction frenzy confined to eastern Calcutta. Glitzy malls, multiplexes and condominiums are sprouting all over the city, whether it’s at Cossipore in the north or Jadavpur in the south. A metropolis the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi once famously described as dying is caught in a huge construction explosion.
Indeed, Calcutta’s skyline is being altered so dramatically that some can scarcely believe the transformation that’s underway. Gazing out of his 10th-floor office in south Calcutta, Dulal Mukherjee, head of architecture firm Dulal Mukherjee & Associates, exclaims: “It’s unbelievable! It’s changing so fast.” The 65-year-old architect has worked on several housing projects, including South City, perhaps south Calcutta’s tallest and most expensive ongoing residential project.
Raja Kaushal, head of the ICICI Bank’s retail and leisure property services in Delhi, puts Calcutta’s construction boom in perspective when he declares: “We are bullish about Calcutta. This is one of the emerging real estate markets in the country today along with Chennai and Pune.”
Nearly 50 large building projects ? all 10 storied or above, with 300 to 1,800 flats ? are coming up in the city at the moment, says Pradip Kumar Chopra, secretary of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India’s Bengal chapter. Most have swimming pools, gyms, clubs and malls ? all unthinkable five years ago. This apart, Chopra says at least 1,000 medium-sized projects ? mostly five-storied apartment buildings, with a car park on the ground floor ? are being constructed in the city, up from the 300 mid-sized apartment houses that were built in 2000.
That’s not all. According to construction industry men, the square feet of area under construction in the city has been growing by more than 30 per cent over the last two years. “Calcutta was for a long time lagging behind other metros when it came to real estate activity. But now the tempo has built up,” says Pradip Kumar Mukherjee, general manager at the Housing Development Finance Corporation’s (HDFC) eastern region. He says that the number of housing loans HDFC has disbursed in the city has been growing at a 30 per cent plus clip over the last couple of years. Adds he: “More and more people are taking loans and buying flats.”
This year, nearly 20 million sq. ft of floor space, both residential and commercial, is being built in the city, up from under five million sq. ft five years ago, Chopra says. Guess how much money is being poured into for this? Hold your breath: nearly Rs 5,000 crore.
What triggered the boom
The construction frenzy will only accelerate. The Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association forecasts that in the next five years a mammoth 250 million sq. ft of space will be built in the Greater Calcutta area. The total investment: a huge Rs 37,500 crore, at the rate of Rs 1,500 per sq. ft. Strikingly, the boom is drawing developers from far and wide, ranging from the Delhi-based Unitech group to Prasoon Mukherjee’s Indonesia-based Universal Success. The two companies have combined to put up a Rs 3,000 crore office-cum-residential project for software companies and professionals at Rajarhat, the new satellite township that’s barely 10 km from Calcutta airport.
A number of factors are prompting the construction boom: low-interest loans are more easily available, the number of nuclear families is on the rise and the public has begun to realise that investments in real estate are safe bets. But above all, Calcutta now houses several information technology (IT) company executives. So real estate companies are zeroing in on them and on non-resident Indians (NRIs) by putting up posh flats.
“The economic landscape in Calcutta is fast changing with the IT sector booming and companies like IBM, TCS and Wipro setting up shop in Salt Lake,” explains Rahul Todi, managing director of Bengal Shrachi Housing Development Ltd. He says that software company executives bought nearly 65 per cent of the flats at two of his company’s projects in New Town, Rajarhat. Ratan Sarkar, a consultant to Vision Comptech, a software development company in Salt Lake, adds that IT professionals are buying flats in the city, as they want to return from Bangalore and Hyderabad and settle down here.
The ups...
• Nearly 50 large building projects are coming up in the city.
• At least 1,000 medium-sized projects — mostly five-storied apartment buildings, with a car park on the ground floor are being constructed. In 2000, 300 mid-sized apartment houses were built.
• Nearly 20 million sq. ft of floor space, both residential and commercial, is being built in the city, up from under five million sq. ft five years ago.
• Nearly Rs 5,000 crore is being poured into construction this year.
...And downs
• Builders are facing a shortage of civil engineers.
• In some parts of south Calcutta, residents complain about not being able to call electricians or plumbers for repair work at home, because builders have engaged most of them.
• Land prices and prices of flats are ballooning
NRIs too are buying apartments in a big way. That’s partly because real estate companies have, for a few years, held road shows in London, New York and Dubai; some even set up stalls at the recently concluded Biswa Bengali Sammelan in New York. Bengalis in the US, the UK and West Asia seem to have been attracted by the city’s infrastructural improvements ? five-star hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, private schools and hospitals. “They have an emotional attachment to the city where most of the them grew up and have their relatives,” says Jugal Khetawat, a director of South City, the company set up by several other real estate companies to float the South City project. NRIs have already bought more than 30 per cent of the project’s flats.
Predictably, Calcutta’s real estate boom has resulted in a scarcity of skilled personnel. Builders are already facing a shortage of civil engineers. In some parts of south Calcutta, residents grumble about not being able to call electricians or plumbers for repair work at home, because builders have engaged most of them.
What is more, land prices and prices of flats are ballooning. Khetawat, who is president of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association, says the land prices have almost doubled over the last two years, while the prices of flats have increased by 20 to 30 per cent. In 2001, flats in Rajarhat, for instance, were sold for Rs 1,000 per sq. foot. Apartments in the area now fetch Rs 1,500-1,600 per sq. foot. In the upscale neighbourhoods of New Alipore and Ballygunge, apartments are now priced at Rs 3,300-3,500 per sq. foot, up from Rs 2,500-2,700 per sq. foot in 2001.
All for a good bargain
Nonetheless, prices are still lower in Calcutta than in most big cities. “You get a decent flat at Rajarhat for Rs 1,500 per sq. ft, but a similar flat in, say, Gurgaon or Noida on the outskirts of New Delhi will cost you at least Rs 2,500 per sq. foot,” notes Harshvardan Neotia, managing director of Bengal Ambuja Housing Development Ltd.
Calcutta’s construction boom has other pluses too. Ravi Poddar, eastern regional chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry, says that the boom is pushing more investment into the city, throwing up more job opportunities and showcasing Calcutta’s growing economic prowess. “More than anything else, the rising construction activity shows that Calcutta is alive and kicking. It’s not a dying or dead city,” Poddar says wryly, referring to Rajiv Gandhi’s statement.
With the state government too foraying into the real estate sector by floating eight joint sector companies (Bengal Ambuja is one of them), Neotia says there has been an overall improvement in the quality of construction. “There is also greater transparency in property deals,” Neotia adds. That’s because, as housing minister Goutam Deb points out, promoters of housing projects are now required to register with his department and submit all details of their projects before they can start work.
Not everyone agrees. Prabir Basu, working president of the Bengal Federation of Consumer Organisations, argues that many builders do not often provide what they charge their buyers for. “They tell you they will give you a multi-gym and charge you for that, but in the end provide only a treadmill and an exercise cycle. They also often delay giving possession,” Basu says.
Builders, meanwhile, fret that the huge amount of construction in Calcutta will lead to oversupply. “It will happen in five years,” Khetawat says. Till then, though, Mukherjee and other architects and builders will burn the midnight oil to complete the hordes of buildings that are coming up.
The skyline is changing, and there is work to be done.
Calcutta 2025: Ring roads, health city, biotech park
Cars will zip down broad, leafy ring roads that encircle the city. The ring roads will be lined with garden-fronted highrises and glass-and-marble shopping arcades. The city will have three new townships. And it could perhaps be the medical capital of the region, catering to overseas patients — on its outskirts will be a health city with super-speciality hospitals and medical and nursing colleges, apart from a biotechnology park.
No, we’re not referring to New Delhi or Bangalore. In 2025, that’s what Calcutta will look like if the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) has its way.
CMDA CEO P.R. Baviskar says that the population of the Calcutta metropolitan area — made up of three corporations, 38 municipalities and 22 Panchayat Samitys — is expected to balloon from 14.69 million to 21 million in two decades. Consequently, the demand for roads and houses will soar.
Baviskar says the government will build two ring roads (an inner ring road and an outer ring road, just like the ones New Delhi has) to speed up traffic flow. To build the inner ring road, the proposed Eastern Expressway, Southern Expressway, Belgharia Expressway and National Highway 2 and 6 will be connected by building 116 km of new roads.
Similarly, 72 km of new roads will be constructed to build the outer ring road that will run around the Calcutta metropolitan area. “The roads are already there. So, all we have to do is join the missing links,” Baviskar says.
Three new satellite townships will be built in Howrah, on the other side of the Hooghly river, Dankuni (about 15 km from Calcutta) and Baruipur (now a small town about 12 km from Calcutta). “They will relieve the pressure on Calcutta to a large extent,” the CMDA CEO says.
Work on the 390-acre township in Howrah has already begun and will be partly complete by 2008. Nearly 5,000 acres of land have been earmarked for the project in Dankuni, while the Baruipur township will cover 2,600 acres. Work in Dankuni and Baruipur is expected to start in a year.
Once the new township comes up in Baruipur in 2008 or so, the headquarters of South 24 Parganas district — still in Calcutta’s Alipore — will be shifted there. Dankuni township is expected to be functional, at least partly, by 2011.
The health city will come up over 800 acres in Sonarpur, around 10 km from Calcutta. Some Rs 20,000 crore will be invested in it. According to Sajal Dutta, president of the Association of Hospitals of Eastern India, who’s involved in the project, at least 100 hospitals with a total capacity of 50,000 beds will come up in the health city, aimed mainly at patients from Southeast and West Asia. The city will also house medical and nursing colleges and training institutes for paramedics.
The biotechnological park, Baviskar says, will come up over 200 acres in the city. Several biotechnology companies have shown interest in setting up research and development facilities here. But the site has not yet been finalised. It could be either in Sonarpur or in Rajarhat, barely 10 km from Calcutta airport where a satellite township called New Town is coming up.
Clearly, cartographers will have to redraw the city’s map in the years ahead.
Indeed, Calcutta’s skyline is being altered so dramatically that some can scarcely believe the transformation that’s underway. Gazing out of his 10th-floor office in south Calcutta, Dulal Mukherjee, head of architecture firm Dulal Mukherjee & Associates, exclaims: “It’s unbelievable! It’s changing so fast.” The 65-year-old architect has worked on several housing projects, including South City, perhaps south Calcutta’s tallest and most expensive ongoing residential project.
Raja Kaushal, head of the ICICI Bank’s retail and leisure property services in Delhi, puts Calcutta’s construction boom in perspective when he declares: “We are bullish about Calcutta. This is one of the emerging real estate markets in the country today along with Chennai and Pune.”
Nearly 50 large building projects ? all 10 storied or above, with 300 to 1,800 flats ? are coming up in the city at the moment, says Pradip Kumar Chopra, secretary of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India’s Bengal chapter. Most have swimming pools, gyms, clubs and malls ? all unthinkable five years ago. This apart, Chopra says at least 1,000 medium-sized projects ? mostly five-storied apartment buildings, with a car park on the ground floor ? are being constructed in the city, up from the 300 mid-sized apartment houses that were built in 2000.
That’s not all. According to construction industry men, the square feet of area under construction in the city has been growing by more than 30 per cent over the last two years. “Calcutta was for a long time lagging behind other metros when it came to real estate activity. But now the tempo has built up,” says Pradip Kumar Mukherjee, general manager at the Housing Development Finance Corporation’s (HDFC) eastern region. He says that the number of housing loans HDFC has disbursed in the city has been growing at a 30 per cent plus clip over the last couple of years. Adds he: “More and more people are taking loans and buying flats.”
This year, nearly 20 million sq. ft of floor space, both residential and commercial, is being built in the city, up from under five million sq. ft five years ago, Chopra says. Guess how much money is being poured into for this? Hold your breath: nearly Rs 5,000 crore.
What triggered the boom
The construction frenzy will only accelerate. The Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association forecasts that in the next five years a mammoth 250 million sq. ft of space will be built in the Greater Calcutta area. The total investment: a huge Rs 37,500 crore, at the rate of Rs 1,500 per sq. ft. Strikingly, the boom is drawing developers from far and wide, ranging from the Delhi-based Unitech group to Prasoon Mukherjee’s Indonesia-based Universal Success. The two companies have combined to put up a Rs 3,000 crore office-cum-residential project for software companies and professionals at Rajarhat, the new satellite township that’s barely 10 km from Calcutta airport.
A number of factors are prompting the construction boom: low-interest loans are more easily available, the number of nuclear families is on the rise and the public has begun to realise that investments in real estate are safe bets. But above all, Calcutta now houses several information technology (IT) company executives. So real estate companies are zeroing in on them and on non-resident Indians (NRIs) by putting up posh flats.
“The economic landscape in Calcutta is fast changing with the IT sector booming and companies like IBM, TCS and Wipro setting up shop in Salt Lake,” explains Rahul Todi, managing director of Bengal Shrachi Housing Development Ltd. He says that software company executives bought nearly 65 per cent of the flats at two of his company’s projects in New Town, Rajarhat. Ratan Sarkar, a consultant to Vision Comptech, a software development company in Salt Lake, adds that IT professionals are buying flats in the city, as they want to return from Bangalore and Hyderabad and settle down here.
The ups...
• Nearly 50 large building projects are coming up in the city.
• At least 1,000 medium-sized projects — mostly five-storied apartment buildings, with a car park on the ground floor are being constructed. In 2000, 300 mid-sized apartment houses were built.
• Nearly 20 million sq. ft of floor space, both residential and commercial, is being built in the city, up from under five million sq. ft five years ago.
• Nearly Rs 5,000 crore is being poured into construction this year.
...And downs
• Builders are facing a shortage of civil engineers.
• In some parts of south Calcutta, residents complain about not being able to call electricians or plumbers for repair work at home, because builders have engaged most of them.
• Land prices and prices of flats are ballooning
NRIs too are buying apartments in a big way. That’s partly because real estate companies have, for a few years, held road shows in London, New York and Dubai; some even set up stalls at the recently concluded Biswa Bengali Sammelan in New York. Bengalis in the US, the UK and West Asia seem to have been attracted by the city’s infrastructural improvements ? five-star hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, private schools and hospitals. “They have an emotional attachment to the city where most of the them grew up and have their relatives,” says Jugal Khetawat, a director of South City, the company set up by several other real estate companies to float the South City project. NRIs have already bought more than 30 per cent of the project’s flats.
Predictably, Calcutta’s real estate boom has resulted in a scarcity of skilled personnel. Builders are already facing a shortage of civil engineers. In some parts of south Calcutta, residents grumble about not being able to call electricians or plumbers for repair work at home, because builders have engaged most of them.
What is more, land prices and prices of flats are ballooning. Khetawat, who is president of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association, says the land prices have almost doubled over the last two years, while the prices of flats have increased by 20 to 30 per cent. In 2001, flats in Rajarhat, for instance, were sold for Rs 1,000 per sq. foot. Apartments in the area now fetch Rs 1,500-1,600 per sq. foot. In the upscale neighbourhoods of New Alipore and Ballygunge, apartments are now priced at Rs 3,300-3,500 per sq. foot, up from Rs 2,500-2,700 per sq. foot in 2001.
All for a good bargain
Nonetheless, prices are still lower in Calcutta than in most big cities. “You get a decent flat at Rajarhat for Rs 1,500 per sq. ft, but a similar flat in, say, Gurgaon or Noida on the outskirts of New Delhi will cost you at least Rs 2,500 per sq. foot,” notes Harshvardan Neotia, managing director of Bengal Ambuja Housing Development Ltd.
Calcutta’s construction boom has other pluses too. Ravi Poddar, eastern regional chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry, says that the boom is pushing more investment into the city, throwing up more job opportunities and showcasing Calcutta’s growing economic prowess. “More than anything else, the rising construction activity shows that Calcutta is alive and kicking. It’s not a dying or dead city,” Poddar says wryly, referring to Rajiv Gandhi’s statement.
With the state government too foraying into the real estate sector by floating eight joint sector companies (Bengal Ambuja is one of them), Neotia says there has been an overall improvement in the quality of construction. “There is also greater transparency in property deals,” Neotia adds. That’s because, as housing minister Goutam Deb points out, promoters of housing projects are now required to register with his department and submit all details of their projects before they can start work.
Not everyone agrees. Prabir Basu, working president of the Bengal Federation of Consumer Organisations, argues that many builders do not often provide what they charge their buyers for. “They tell you they will give you a multi-gym and charge you for that, but in the end provide only a treadmill and an exercise cycle. They also often delay giving possession,” Basu says.
Builders, meanwhile, fret that the huge amount of construction in Calcutta will lead to oversupply. “It will happen in five years,” Khetawat says. Till then, though, Mukherjee and other architects and builders will burn the midnight oil to complete the hordes of buildings that are coming up.
The skyline is changing, and there is work to be done.
Calcutta 2025: Ring roads, health city, biotech park
Cars will zip down broad, leafy ring roads that encircle the city. The ring roads will be lined with garden-fronted highrises and glass-and-marble shopping arcades. The city will have three new townships. And it could perhaps be the medical capital of the region, catering to overseas patients — on its outskirts will be a health city with super-speciality hospitals and medical and nursing colleges, apart from a biotechnology park.
No, we’re not referring to New Delhi or Bangalore. In 2025, that’s what Calcutta will look like if the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) has its way.
CMDA CEO P.R. Baviskar says that the population of the Calcutta metropolitan area — made up of three corporations, 38 municipalities and 22 Panchayat Samitys — is expected to balloon from 14.69 million to 21 million in two decades. Consequently, the demand for roads and houses will soar.
Baviskar says the government will build two ring roads (an inner ring road and an outer ring road, just like the ones New Delhi has) to speed up traffic flow. To build the inner ring road, the proposed Eastern Expressway, Southern Expressway, Belgharia Expressway and National Highway 2 and 6 will be connected by building 116 km of new roads.
Similarly, 72 km of new roads will be constructed to build the outer ring road that will run around the Calcutta metropolitan area. “The roads are already there. So, all we have to do is join the missing links,” Baviskar says.
Three new satellite townships will be built in Howrah, on the other side of the Hooghly river, Dankuni (about 15 km from Calcutta) and Baruipur (now a small town about 12 km from Calcutta). “They will relieve the pressure on Calcutta to a large extent,” the CMDA CEO says.
Work on the 390-acre township in Howrah has already begun and will be partly complete by 2008. Nearly 5,000 acres of land have been earmarked for the project in Dankuni, while the Baruipur township will cover 2,600 acres. Work in Dankuni and Baruipur is expected to start in a year.
Once the new township comes up in Baruipur in 2008 or so, the headquarters of South 24 Parganas district — still in Calcutta’s Alipore — will be shifted there. Dankuni township is expected to be functional, at least partly, by 2011.
The health city will come up over 800 acres in Sonarpur, around 10 km from Calcutta. Some Rs 20,000 crore will be invested in it. According to Sajal Dutta, president of the Association of Hospitals of Eastern India, who’s involved in the project, at least 100 hospitals with a total capacity of 50,000 beds will come up in the health city, aimed mainly at patients from Southeast and West Asia. The city will also house medical and nursing colleges and training institutes for paramedics.
The biotechnological park, Baviskar says, will come up over 200 acres in the city. Several biotechnology companies have shown interest in setting up research and development facilities here. But the site has not yet been finalised. It could be either in Sonarpur or in Rajarhat, barely 10 km from Calcutta airport where a satellite township called New Town is coming up.
Clearly, cartographers will have to redraw the city’s map in the years ahead.
This Is What Leading Newspapers Have To Say: The Statesman, Calcutta
Some leading newspapers have the following to say about the South City project and related issues.
The Statesman 21 Feb 2004
The Statesman 21 Feb 2004
CPI flays state’s trade and labour policies
Tirthankar Mitra in Kolkata
Feb. 20. — While the Left Front government is all set to downsize the workforce in the loss-making state PSUs, its mode of welcoming foreign capital has been described as “being no different” from such policies of the Union government. The rap on the knuckles has been administered in a draft resolution of the trade wing of the CPI, a Front partner.
The document launches successive attacks on the Front government, often aiming for its proudest slogan “champion of the proletariat”. The state government’s repeated statements against militant trade unionism have led to sharp reactions among the labour force though strikes are on the decline and lockouts on the rise, it states.
The measures taken by the state vis-a-vis closed and sick industries appear to be similar to those of the Centre, it said. The condition of jobless workers in the tea and jute industries is terrible.
The workers’ interests, rights and social security are being endangered by the way entrepreneurs are flouting labour laws and agreements. Yet the government is not taking any action against them. The state has decided to stop recruitment in different sectors and instead employ people on a contractual basis and with lower wages, a practice which has also been adopted by private owners who have “intensified the attack on workers”. The state labour department was also at the receiving end of CPI flak.
Intent on ousting the LF government, the BJP-led NDA government is advocating liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation. “The LF government is against these policies, but is forced to take some steps which cannot be differentiated from the Union government’s policies. This happens to be the dialectical complexity of the situation,” it said.
The Statesman 10.09.2005
Realtors thrive on land of sick units
Statesman News Service
KOLKATA, Sept. 9. — Is the increasing real estate business on the land of closed and sick mills in and around Kolkata replacing factories and mills inevitable?
The recent meeting of the CPI-M central committee concluded politically correct that new industries should nest on the old’s abandoned home and Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s government would facilitate the replacement by unlocking the unused and surplus land of closed and sick units. But a survey by Nagarik Mancha, an industry research group, has found that most of the closed mills’ land in and around the city has been grabbed by the private promoters, with the tacit support of the politicians and government officials.
The state industry minister, Mr Nirupam Sen, admitted that most of these land deals were illegal. But he said that it was necessary as there was a huge demand for residential complexes. Virtually condoning this trend, he said that old-styled factories would not come up on the land of the closed units because of new environmental stipulations and changing global industrial scenario.
“Traditional industries like leather and foundry will not return to the city as we have been shifting them to fringe areas. The real estate boom is the result of current economic trend. The promoters are thriving on the huge demand for houses. The government is trying to intervene in the market and increase supplies by facilitating organised efforts to develop residential complexes and townships. People will have to cough up less money to buy a flat,” Mr Sen reasoned.
Notwithstanding the debate over agriculture v/s industrialization in the wake of Salim Group’s proposals, shrinking of industrial land is alarming. According to the Mancha convenor, Mr Naba Dutta, the Subhas Pahari committee, set up by late Benoy Choudhury during his tenure in Land and Land Reforms department, estimated that there are around 1.36 lakh acres of land belonging to 317 closed and sick units in the state including some jute mills. Later, the figure came down in a Webcon study commissioned by the Industry department. The industry minister put the figure at 40-42000 acres. However, hardly any of these plots is under government control as the owners have not declared its closures to avoid the vesting of the urban land, he said.
“Our survey found that residential buildings, markets and shopping malls have either come up or are in the pipeline on the land of some 80-85 closed and sick units in Kolkata and suburbs alone. Officially, many of these units have not been declared closed and workers are still getting Rs 500 from the government.
The Statesman 20 August 2006
Tirthankar Mitra in Kolkata
Feb. 20. — While the Left Front government is all set to downsize the workforce in the loss-making state PSUs, its mode of welcoming foreign capital has been described as “being no different” from such policies of the Union government. The rap on the knuckles has been administered in a draft resolution of the trade wing of the CPI, a Front partner.
The document launches successive attacks on the Front government, often aiming for its proudest slogan “champion of the proletariat”. The state government’s repeated statements against militant trade unionism have led to sharp reactions among the labour force though strikes are on the decline and lockouts on the rise, it states.
The measures taken by the state vis-a-vis closed and sick industries appear to be similar to those of the Centre, it said. The condition of jobless workers in the tea and jute industries is terrible.
The workers’ interests, rights and social security are being endangered by the way entrepreneurs are flouting labour laws and agreements. Yet the government is not taking any action against them. The state has decided to stop recruitment in different sectors and instead employ people on a contractual basis and with lower wages, a practice which has also been adopted by private owners who have “intensified the attack on workers”. The state labour department was also at the receiving end of CPI flak.
Intent on ousting the LF government, the BJP-led NDA government is advocating liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation. “The LF government is against these policies, but is forced to take some steps which cannot be differentiated from the Union government’s policies. This happens to be the dialectical complexity of the situation,” it said.
The Statesman 10.09.2005
Realtors thrive on land of sick units
Statesman News Service
KOLKATA, Sept. 9. — Is the increasing real estate business on the land of closed and sick mills in and around Kolkata replacing factories and mills inevitable?
The recent meeting of the CPI-M central committee concluded politically correct that new industries should nest on the old’s abandoned home and Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s government would facilitate the replacement by unlocking the unused and surplus land of closed and sick units. But a survey by Nagarik Mancha, an industry research group, has found that most of the closed mills’ land in and around the city has been grabbed by the private promoters, with the tacit support of the politicians and government officials.
The state industry minister, Mr Nirupam Sen, admitted that most of these land deals were illegal. But he said that it was necessary as there was a huge demand for residential complexes. Virtually condoning this trend, he said that old-styled factories would not come up on the land of the closed units because of new environmental stipulations and changing global industrial scenario.
“Traditional industries like leather and foundry will not return to the city as we have been shifting them to fringe areas. The real estate boom is the result of current economic trend. The promoters are thriving on the huge demand for houses. The government is trying to intervene in the market and increase supplies by facilitating organised efforts to develop residential complexes and townships. People will have to cough up less money to buy a flat,” Mr Sen reasoned.
Notwithstanding the debate over agriculture v/s industrialization in the wake of Salim Group’s proposals, shrinking of industrial land is alarming. According to the Mancha convenor, Mr Naba Dutta, the Subhas Pahari committee, set up by late Benoy Choudhury during his tenure in Land and Land Reforms department, estimated that there are around 1.36 lakh acres of land belonging to 317 closed and sick units in the state including some jute mills. Later, the figure came down in a Webcon study commissioned by the Industry department. The industry minister put the figure at 40-42000 acres. However, hardly any of these plots is under government control as the owners have not declared its closures to avoid the vesting of the urban land, he said.
“Our survey found that residential buildings, markets and shopping malls have either come up or are in the pipeline on the land of some 80-85 closed and sick units in Kolkata and suburbs alone. Officially, many of these units have not been declared closed and workers are still getting Rs 500 from the government.
The Statesman 20 August 2006
Once there was a jheel...
Kolkata’s ‘tallest’ towers, fast nearing completion, have been in the thick of controversy for flouting environmental norms. Mohit Ray has been watching the battle between the realtors and the green lobby from the ringside
IN the beginning there was a well-known industry called Jay Engineering of Usha Group which manufactured the famous Usha fans and sewing machines on Prince Anwar Shah Road, in south Kolkata. On its backyard was Bikramgarh Jheel, one of the large waterbodies in the southern suburb of Kolkata, shown in the latest map (2001) of the city published by National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation.
Like many industries in Bengal, Jay Engineering was closed down and so came the real estate people to grab the prime land. And the city came to know through a series of colourful huge hoardings that the industrial plot is now being reborn as the tallest venture in eastern India — a 35-storied housing complex, named South City. As you approach the southern part of the city you cannot miss the sight of two of the proposed four sky-high towers. These are the towers of violation, as they continue to flout environmental norms.
South City Projects is promoted by some of the big names in real estate in the state. It boasts of 31.14 acres of mini-township featuring three 35-storey and one 28-storey residential towers. It is supposedly the highest building in eastern India. On the cards are an enormous shopping mall, a sprawling club, a school, a central green area and landscaping, including beautiful waterbodies. It is the biggest real-estate project Kolkata has ever seen.
In 1995 celebrity lawyer MC Mehta filed a case in the Supreme Court of India to remove polluting industries from Delhi. While the small industries suffered, the bigger ones were happy to move out. The idea was to sell land in prime areas of the city for the price of gold.
The Supreme Court, however, ordered that if the industry covered more than 5 hectares, only 35 per cent of the land could be sold, while the rest would have to be given to the city authority for developing green belts. As Delhi got rid of the polluting industries, Delhites were gifted with more green areas.
When more than 12 hectares of Jay Engineering factory land was being transferred to a new real estate developer, the citizens of this densely-populated southern suburb expected to get a green park measuring 8 hectares out of the industrial land as it had happened in Delhi. But no, the southern suburb would, in fact, get a huge concrete jungle, not a single square metre of land would be given for public use. So the corporation, state government and realtors joined hands to violate the spirit of Supreme Court’s direction. And this tradition of violation continued, with the help of the state.
Grab the waterbody
Then came the turn of Bikramgarh Jheel to face this juggernaut of violation. In a densely-populated area, the presence of such a large waterbody was a unique phenomenon. In the absence of any plan for conservation, this sprawling wetland was slowly turning into a dirty, polluted place. This wetland still attracts a lot of different species — birds, small animals, varied insects – enriching the biodiversity.
There have been different initiatives by environmental groups and local organisations and representatives to renovate this vast waterbody [see box.page 10]. Even as the initiatives to conserve Bikramgarh Jheel were being taken, South City Projects was being outlined and the idea was to grab a part of this waterbody as a part of it.
South City was given official consent by West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) on November 2003. And by mid-2005 South City had filled up a part of the waterbody and started construction there. Local people felt helpless. There were complaints from different quarters. Then on 2 January 2006, Vasundhara, an environmentalists’ group, complained with detailed report and photographs to the West Bengal governor, chief minister and a number of government departments, including WBPCB, about South City’s encroachment on Bikramgarh Jheel.
Breaking norms
WBPCB has conducted three hearings on 24 January, 17 February and 29 March of 2006 in the presence of the representatives of South City Projects and Vasundhara, the complaining NGO. In the beginning South City had happily revealed that it had got permission for filling up 1.31 acres of waterbody from WBPCB, in lieu of creating 1.41 acres of a new waterbody. Later they stated that the waterbody had not been filled up.
WBPCB sent a team of engineers on 8 March 2006 to check the existence of 1.31 acres of waterbody. The team categorically concluded that no such waterbody existed. Also the South City authorities failed to show them any specific location where the proposed 1.41-acre waterbody would come up. The report noted, “The filling up operation of the Jheel towards the waterside was in progress”.
During the hearing on 29 March, representatives of the Fisheries Department, Govt of West Bengal, informed that they have sent two notices to South City Projects for filling up of the waterbody. In the same meeting, representative of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) stated that their map of Bikramgarh Jheel, based on aerial photography, clearly shows encroachment of 10830.5 square meter (160 cottahs) of Bikramgarh Jheel by South City Projects. KMC also wondered how WBPCB at all could give permission to fill up a part of a waterbody. Though three government organisations — WBPCB, Fisheries Department and KMC — confirmed filling up of the waterbody, construction work on the filled-up area was speeded up to pre-empt any investigation. The Inland Fisheries Act, which prohibit even filling up of 5 cottah (330 sq.m) of waterbody, was ignored when it came to filling up 160 cottahs of Bikramgarh Jheel.
WBPCB has complained to Calcutta High Court that the whole work of South City Projects is illegal. According to Environmental Impact Assessment Notification under Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, a clearance is needed from the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India, which they have not yet done. But who cares for environmental laws if you are on the right side of the ruling party?
Committees galore
After these hearings, WBPCB formed an independent committee consisting of Prof PN Roy (ex-pro VC, Calcutta University), Prof Arunava Majumder (ex-head, All India Institute of Public Health and Hygiene), Manab Sengupta (secretary, faculty of science and technology, Calcutta University) and Biswajit Mukherjee (senior law officer, WBPCB). It held a hearing of all parties on 11 April 2006. The committee visited the site and examined all relevant papers. On 18 May the committee came up with a bold report though surprisingly forgot to mention the roles of environmental and community organisations in the struggle. The committee recommended that, the entire work of South City Projects should be closed, and Tower III and IV should be demolished. Construction work of Tower III and IV has encroached on the waterbody and also been developed by filling it up.
Two IAS officers, Asim Burman (ex-secy, Dept of Environment), Shyamal Sarkar (ex-member secretary, WBPCB) and two chief engineers of WBPCB were held responsible for giving permission to fill up the waterbody. Bikramgarh Jheel should be restored to its previous state.
The committee annexed 30 photographs to show how the flouting of environmental norms has been sustained. The report was simply ignored by all executing authorities including WBPCB.
The West Bengal chief secretary formed another committee, probably to greenwash the developers’ lobby. The committee has representations from the Department of Environment, Department of Fisheries and KMC. After a period of prolonged silence the committee has admitted the obvious, — that South City Projects has filled up Bikramgarh Jheel illegally — and is probably now busy finding a new escape route for the developers.
Environment, anyone?
People who govern Kolkata are interested in protecting its environment only on select occasions. There are instances when the judiciary, West Bengal government and the KMC and even some “environmental” organisations became unusually active to destroy the homes of several thousands of poor people to save the environment of Rabindra Sarobar. The homes of the poor along the canals of Kolkata were bulldozed to beautify the city.
What then prevents the illegal construction of South City from being demolished? As long as Kolkata’s concerned people organise nature shows in city auditoriums but never work actively towards saving the environment from the rich and powerful, bringing down the towers of violation would remain an absurd dream.
Fast filling up
5 June 2002 – Local clubs and Vasundhara organise World Environment Day and start a campaign for saving Bikramgarh Jheel (BJ)
25 March 2003 – KMC takes over BJ for restoration
27 July 2003 – A workshop by Vasundhara and Centre for Urban Economic Studies, Calcutta University and Udayan club for wise renovation of BJ
7 November 2003 – South City Projects gets clearance to start work
16 February 2005 – Deputy director of fisheries notify filling up of the waterbody
2 January 2006 – Vasundhara sends a report and a set of photographs about filling up of BJ to different government departments.
24 January & 17 February 2006 – WBPCB conducts hearings on the issue
8 March 2005 – WBPCB engineers visit the site and report about filling up of the waterbody
29 March 2005 – Fisheries department and KMC inform about the filling up of BJ in the hearing
5 April 2006 – An independent committee headed by PN Roy is constituted by WBPCB
11 April 2006 – Committee meets environmental organisations
18 May 2006 – Committee submits report recommending stopping of all work in South City and restoration of BJ
July 2006 – Chief secretary forms another committee
August 2006 – This committee also finds illegal filling up of BJ
At present – South City continues construction and other work. Inspired by South City and the government’s silence, other small-scale encroachers are filling up BJ fast.
Some photos of the disputed site
The South City towers sometime in August 2006.
The little house on the left is where Shambhu Prasad continues to live.
A close up of Shambhu's residence with his family visible on the balcony.
Ranu Ghosh shooting.The Saga of Shambhu Prasad Begins
In 1994, before the staff quarters were demolished, Shambhu had filed a petition in the High Court, asking for a stay till such time that his full and deserved compensation was paid by his employers. The workers had never been informed of the sale of the factory land, nor been given advance notice of their eviction and the subsequent demolition of their residences. Instead, they had been forced out with a token amount paid under the Voluntary Retirement Scheme. Shambhu was the only one who refused the VRS payout, and despite the threats to his life and well-being by hoodlums as well as the police, he took the matter to court from where he obtained a stay on his eviction as well as on the demolition of his residence. Because of this, Shambhu says that about forty lakhs of rupees remains unpaid to the Usha factory owners by the developers as on date.
Subsequently, Shambhu was deserted by two of his lawyers, who he suspects were bought over by the developers. In 2005, the High Court ruled that Shambhu's case was not a matter for them and belonged to the jurisdiction of the City Civil Court in Alipore. He had to go through the whole procedure all over again, and it is where it still stands as Shambhu continues his fight in the face of big money and even bigger odds with his meagre and dwindling resources.
Apart from the environmental issues that such a huge construction raises, causing genuine concern for not just me, but all citizens, I also see two other film projects in this story both of which will highlight the human interest side. These are the 'case studies' as it were, of the group of ex-workers who continue to live like lost souls along the boundary wall of South City, and the story of Shambhu, an individual, who by the courage of his convictions, has dared to confront the big money of corporate developers, and has unwittingly challenged the injustice they are perpetrating on the community.
What Do I Want To Do: by Ranu Ghosh
I had been following the workers and their dependants mentioned above for some time, documenting their stories, recording their disbelief at their reduced status, how they were trying to adjust to the vicious change in their lives, and how they continued to live in 'jhuggi-jhopdis' beside the wall of the South City development. Skilled workers were now caretakers of private property; running tiny shops; plying cycle rickshaws; itinerant vendors; or simply sitting by the blocked gates despondently watching what is touted as the one of the tallest constructions in this part of the world, growing skywards in leaps and bounds every day.
At the same time, because of my own interest in environmental issues, I interacted with the local Nagarik (Citizens') Committee who have filed a case against the developers in the Calcutta High Court, accusing them of illegally filling up a large natural water body – the Bikramgarh jheel - to construct the fourth tower of the high-rise complex, and of also causing untold damage to the environment as a consequence of their activities. The case, filed on the basis of a signature campaign among 250 or so resident families, initially seemed to have received unexpected, but indirect support from the West Bengal Pollution Control Board who submitted to the Court that no clearances for the real estate project had been issued by them. But construction continues unabated. In fact, at last count, a high powered committee chaired by the Chief Secretary of the state government is “looking into the matter”, and it is popularly believed that all vested interests will be served, completely denying former Usha factory workers of their rights and further justice, and resulting in an irretrievable loss of environment for the local residents, many of whom have been living there for decades before the Usha factory came up in the 50s.
Popular belief also holds that the PCB and the Calcutta Municipal Corporation have told the developers that were they to create an artificial water body within the South City complex equivalent in size to the natural water body they have usurped, the official clearances required to complete construction would be forthcoming!
In 2006, when I returned to document how the staff living quarters, the school and playground had been destroyed, the walls raised and the gates blocked to make way for the construction, I accidentally got to know of Shambhu Prasad, a second-generation worker of Jay Engineering. While talking with the other workers, they told me of Shambhu who stubbornly resided in his officially appointed quarters, slap-bang in the middle of the mammoth real estate development. South City's four gigantic towers are actually rising around his house.
How It All Began - Ranu Ghosh Tells A True Story
1992: I was working on a film project on closed and sick industries in Bengal for CINDIT of New Delhi who were involved with development issues. While I had earlier worked on a voluntary basis and in a sort of activist mode with small, local organisations, this was the first time I was to professionally explore the issues that have always interested and concerned me.
In 1994, Jyoti Basu then Chief Minister of West Bengal, made some significant remarks regarding closed and sick industries of the state, which would have far-reaching implications. With this background I began to privately work on documenting and filming social issues which concerned me, many of which were shown in India and abroad. Simultaneously, I also worked on a commercial basis in the industry for personal sustenance, but I always tried to work on projects in which a certain level of protest and activism was apparent. These included environmental issues like water and air pollution in which their severity and ill-effects were highlighted.
In 1995, I was living in rented accommodation in the locality right behind the erstwhile Usha Factory on Prince Anwar Shah Road, the site of the present mammoth real estate development known as South City. The Jay Engineering factory (a unit of Usha Industries) which occupied most of the industrial enclave was still partly functional and had not yet been shut down. The smaller workshops and sheds of ancillary manufacturers and vendors abutted the factory and I could see a lot of them from the rooftop of my house.
A year before, while doing a film on the Calcutta wetlands, I closely observed the changes that were taking place because of the new constructions and real estate development in the areas off the bypass including Salt Lake. We projected effects on the environment and were amazed to find that town planning norms had never actually included the development of these areas. In fact, this side of the city was never meant to be developed so drastically at all. The sites proposed for development were meant to be on the other side of the river, in the Howrah region!
Over the last few years, I can see how the eastern and southern areas of the city have undergone rampant development, how built-up settlements have rapidly expanded, and I am a witness as well as a co-sufferer of the many problems facing the residents. This aspect was made acutely aware to me one day when the cycle rickshawala taking me home, in an aggrieved tone full of aggression, suddenly told me that the housing complex in which I resided was built on a paddy field, and that the manicured lawn on which I often spent some relaxed time was exactly the spot where his own paddy crop had been cultivated. He, along with other farmers, had been forcibly evicted from there with a miniscule compensation and he was now trying hard to earn a living as a rickshawala while his wife worked as a domestic help in that very complex. This piece of information shocked me out of my comfort zone and strengthened my resolve to do something positive .
In 2004 I heard that the Usha factory land had been sold to the consortium developing the high-rise South City complex. This was completely contrary to what Jyoti Basu had declared in '94 when he said that the Usha Factory land would be used for the construction of Apollo Hospital and that a pharmaceutical factory would also come up there, providing employment and other benefits to the local population.
I am personally against the real estate development in the Eastern Metropolitan bypass and adjoining areas. I visited the Usha factory location in '04 and talked with the residents who lived around it. From them I learned that the employees of Usha factory still living in their allocated staff quarters were to be evicted very soon. I also heard that CITU, the CPI(M)'s labour union, had taken over the negotiations with the factory owners, depriving the affected workers of a large portion of their deserved compensation.
Most of the workers had quietly accepted whatever handout came their way and had left the quarters. As soon as they vacated their premises, the housing was dismantled, making it inhabitable. I interviewed the women and migrant workers most affected by the strong-arm tactics of the developers, documented my findings, and saw the last vestiges of two generations of a community on the brink of oblivion. I saw these people, immigrants from neighbouring districts and states, unable to accept the changes that had been forced on them. I saw the way they tried to cope with the drastic degradation in their lifestyles, their lack of suitable employment leading to penury, and how all this affected them so deeply that they were unwilling to take leave of the area, opting to live in crude hutments and shacks beside the high wall that now enclosed their former place of residence, without the benefit of basic amenities. This is when I firmly decided that I would devote my time, energy and limited personal funds to highlight their plight.
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