Third site at Eco Urban village unveiled

Kolkata: The New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) has opened a third site at the Eco Urban village.

The site will be helpful to organise picnics.

This third site has a concrete room with attached toilet (Rs 2,000 per day) inclusive of GST.

Debashis Sen, chairman of New Town Kolkata Development Authority opened the third spot last week. The spot is a delight for the for bird watchers on the lake front.

The number of people organizing picnic is going up very year and people stay to organize it near home.

The picnic around Baruipur and Sonarpur in south 24 parganas are losing popularity because of construction of buildings close to the picnic spots.

As a result, people are trying to find options in North 24-Parganas and New Town is in their priority list.

One picnic spot is situated near the immersion ghat's Upasanasthal and the other is at the Eco Urban Village. One is located in Action Area 1, close to New Town Thana while the other is a 5 minutes' drive from the Pyancha more.

To reach the Eco Urban Village on has to take a right turn from the main road from the Slt Lake side at Pyancha More. A prominent road gantry signage has been put up. A five minutes' drive and on reaches the entrance gate and the parking area. There are four day cottages, a central circular open stage and two "Kalobarir Adda". There are two kitchen sheds too. The peak season is November to February and weekends are especially rushed and often booked months in advance. Last season (Nov 2018-Feb 2019), there were 126 picnics (Rs 5,000 for each picnic site).The cottages were booked for 85 days (Rs 1,000 per day per cottage). The total revenue mobilised in this period last season was Rs 6.08 lakhs.

One, however, cannot stay overnight in the cottages: the EUV closes in the evening. Also, after evening, the lawns are planned to be given for parties (year ends are a great favourite) as per rules. Parking fee for 4-wheelers is Rs 50 flat, irrespective of the duration of parking.