Front runners in the construction of townships in the country have shown keen interest in the six theme cities that are coming up in the state.
Debashis Sen, chairman of Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) had been to Mumbai to interact with the builders over the proposals.
The CEOs and managing directors of several companies came for the interactive session. This is for the first time when such a venture has been taken by the state government when senior officials will go out to tell people about various projects that have been taken up.
The state government has proposed to set up six theme townships.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has given names of the townships. Uttam City is coming up on 86 acres of land at Baruipur. Agnibina in Asansol is coming up on 59 acres of land while Teesta in Siliguri and Dumurjala in Howrah are coming up on 84 acres and 51 acres of land respectively and Samriddhi in Kalyani is coming up on 50 acres of land. Gitabitan on 127 acres of land is also coming up in
Bolpur.
The state government has already framed township policies where the buyers will have to procure the land through e-auction. They will be given one year time to pay the money which can be extended up to two years but in that case they will have to pay interest at the rate of 12 per cent.
About 25 per cent of the area would have to be kept for those coming from economically challenged background and in another 25 per cent of the area, economic activities have been proposed as it has been seen in China that people did not move in townships due to lack of economic activities. Around Rs 11,000 crore would be required to set up the townships.
Sen said that the builders had shown keen interest and one of them would be sending their technical team shortly to the state to see the land and the location of the proposed townships.
The promoters like the idea of setting up the infrastructure up to the periphery. They have also suggested that the state government should specify an area where the garbage could be dumped.
The promoters have also shown interest about the wellness city which would come up at Baruipur, One of them said that a wellness city was coming up at Bangalore and discussed the matter with Sen.