Lottery for New Town plot distribution to begin post April

Firhad Hakim, state minister for Urban Development will release an information booklet for plots in New Town which will be distributed through lottery at the State Bank Auditorium at Milan Mela ground where the Kolkata International Book Fair is being held on Monday evening.

The West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) has used the Book Fair to showcase its various projects. HIDCO has opened a pavilion in the Book Fair where it is projecting New Town as the future exhibition and convention destination of the city.

Interested persons can apply for the plots through online from January 31. It will continue till April end after which a lottery will be held. The sizes of plots vary between 2.5 cottah and 5 cottah.

HIDCO will open a help desk at HIDCO Bhavan to help the proposed buyers fill up the application forms. The plots are situated near Owl More off Eco Park.

The decision to distribute the plots was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. HIDCO will also put up sign boards so that the interested persons can see the plots.

HIDCO will auction and distribute 100 plots through lottery. Of these plots, for the twenty plots meant for HIG, there will be e auctions.

The starting price will be mentioned in the first page of e-auction form. One plot will be auctioned every day. The remaining 75 plots will be allotted through lottery. The plots will be leased out for 99 years.

It may be mentioned that after HIDCO was set up in the 1990s, the Housing Minister Gautam Deb was its chairman. There are allegations of nepotism by misusing the chairman's quota.

After coming to power in 2011, Mamata Banerjee abolished the chairman's quota and made Debashis Sen, a senior bureaucrat, chairman of HIDCO. The e-auction and lottery will be absolutely transparent.