Joint committee of HMC and HIT to be formed for expediting Howrah’s growth

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had directed to form the committee in the administrative review meeting in Howrah held on June 21.

The committee will have Mayor of HMC Dr Rathin Chakraborty, chairman of HIT and the former MLA Ashok Ghosh. The invitee members of the committee would be the District Magistrate and Commissioner of Howrah City Police. Mayor of HMC will be its chairman.

A day after Chief Minister had directed to form the committee, a meeting in this regard held in the office of Debashis Sen, the additional chief secretary of the state Urban Development department. 

Commissioner of HMC Nilanjan Chattopadhyay and CEO of HIT were present in the meeting with Sen. Though the committee is yet to be named, an official of HMC explained that its task would be like of a “task force” that will oversee all the ongoing projects and ensure their timely completion.

It may be mentioned that in the administrative meeting, Banerjee had directed the district authorities to take necessary steps for better traffic movement in Howrah where there would be a huge investment soon with the setting up of industrial hub in the district that would also be generating around 5 lakh jobs.

 She had said that Howrah is the gateway to Kolkata and necessary infrastructure will be in place to further improve the traffic management system as hundreds of vehicles enter the state’s Capital through Howrah.

With the formation of the committee, members of both the bodies - HMC and HIT - can discuss all the aspects of a project that would be taken to give a new lease of life to Howrah, which is considered to be one of the oldest cities.

An official of the civic body said both the bodies implement different development projects. In many projects, permission of both the agencies is required. The committee will do away with administrative delay in getting permission. 

In case the HIT takes up a housing project, the matter will get discussed in the meeting of the committee first and all aspects including those may cause hindrance in implementing the same will taken care of by the members of the committee.

Chattopadhyay said: “The basic idea is to ensure an overall development of the twin city of Kolkata and a collaborative effort of both the bodies is essential to ensure that all the upcoming projects gets implemented within the stipulated time without remaining stuck in any glitches.”

It is learnt that a set of projects are in the pipeline for further development of the Howrah city and the process of the formation of the committee will be completed before the projects are taken up.

  The jurisdiction of HMC had increase after 16 wards of the erstwhile Bally Municipality merged with the municipal corporation. 

The civic body has undertaken to ensure development of the newly added areas. The formation of the committee will also be helpful in it.