State-run pet crèche to come up soon in New Town

Kolkata: The first state-run pet crèche, along with a treatment centre and burial ground, is coming up in New Town.

Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) handed over the 25 cottah land, where the centre will come up, to New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) on Tuesday. The centre is likely to become operational by May. It will come up near the Unitech buildings.

The crèche will have 10 rooms fitted with doors and wire net doors for the pets. Every room will have a ceiling fan. The rooms will be airy and get adequate sunlight. In front of the rooms, there will be a green open field, where the pets will be taken out in the morning and evening.

The charges for keeping the pets at the crèche have not yet been decided. There will also be a vet to look after the pets if they fall sick.

There will be an administrative building, housing a treatment centre for the pets. There will be a reception and a waiting area. However, no surgery will be performed at the treatment centre.

The pet burial ground will be situated behind the crèche and the treatment centre. There will be 30 burial pits. Work is underway to fix the burial charges, as well as the timing of burial.

The owners of pets face a major problem in absence of proper burial grounds. The privately owned burial grounds charge heavily.

The state-run burial ground will be maintained properly, where the owners will be allowed to install plaques for one year. After this, the plaque will be digitalised and photographs of their pets will be put up in the administrative block.

Kolkata and New Town are coming up as hubs for large breeds of dogs. There are breeds like St Bernard, French and Bull Mastiff, Great Dane, Afghan Hound, Chow Chow and Rottweiler, in addition to popular breeds like Labrador Retriever, Golden Retriever and German Shepherd.