City industrialists want e commerce portal for land deals

KOLKATA: City industrialists are pushing the West Bengal government to come up with an e-commerce site that would allow entrepreneurs to buy and sell land parcels. The portal will not only bring in transparency in land deals, but also encourage industrialists to monetise land tracts of factories which have downed shutters.

www.sevagiri.com

 The idea was recently floated before WB commerce & industries minister Amit Mitra during an interactive session with industrialists and Ficci (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry) members.

 Elaborating, Keventer Group chairman MK Jalan said land acquisition is a sensitive issue which requires transparency. "Land transactions on a state government online platform will address the issue and enable entrepreneurs to get a fair deal with demand-supply determining the price of the land parcel," he said. 

"Our proposal is in line with the state government's move to implement e-governance system in various government departments," Jalan added. During the interaction, the finance minister claimed that the state has some 1,00,000 acres lying with its different departments which was readily available for setting up industries and another 22,000 acres of land tracts of factories which have downed shutters. He requested the apex chamber to help the state government in its effort to unlock these land tracts.

"Ficci can set up a core committee which will not only identify these lands and industrialists but will also act as a mediator between state government and owners of these units to free the locked lands spread across the state. We will have to work together on this as it involves both business and government," the finance minister said. Highlighting the progress of the state in various fields during the last four years of Trinamool Congress rule, Mitra said all macro-parameters like per capita income, plan expenditure as well as capital expenditure has improved while e-governance measures has pushed the state's domes tic product growth. Mitra also said that the state had bagged the "highest award" for e-governance among other states this year.

 Seamless implementation of egovernance across departments had helped in reducing time, decreasing rent seeking and increased transparency, he said. Through the successful implementation of e-governance system in the various government departments, especially digitized signature system, file tracking and commercial taxation through online has helped in morphing the state's tax mobilization process to a new high. The successful implementation of e-governance has spurred the growth rate as the state's GDP now stands at 10.48 per cent. 
 

SOurce - ET

Turning Kolkata's New Town into a future city

The New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) will need to work on effective data collection and its graphic presentation to develop the township into a futuristic smart city, urban experts from the UK prescribed during a workshop held recently. 

www.sevagiri.com

The six-member team from Future Cities Catapult (FCC) was in Kolkata for two days to visit New Town and organize a workshop where experts have put forward recommendations and suggestions to develop the township. 

The Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco) authorities had signed an MoU with the agency during chief minister Mamata Banerjee's London visit on July this year. FCC is a global centre of excellence on urban innovation that is helping NKDA and Hidco as a handholding agency to prepare a road map. 

"The experts said New Town has the potential to become a true Asian Township. The recommendations will be followed," said NKDA chairman Debashis Sen. A state delegation, including Sen and other senior government officials, is scheduled to meet officials of the AmCham India national chapter in New Delhi on October 5 where discussions will take place on the four smart cities and six theme townships in the state. 

One of the main recommendations that came from the FCC team was to have an effective data collection system where data of different issues would be presented on a graphic manner. "For example, there could be a data of a day's traffic volume in a graphic manner as to which time of the day the traffic volume is highest, or lowest," an official said. 

Inward investment strategy, in which jobs and economic opportunities will be created within the township, was discussed at length at the workshop. 

Last week, the NKDA authorities held a consultation meet where local residents were asked to suggest on ways and means to develop the township. Proper pavements, traffic signals, car parking plazas and underpasses with escalators were some of the demands on part of the locals. They also called for a green and clean environment. 

The NKDA has launched a smart phone application, named as 'Smart City New Town', to get feedback of New Town residents. 

Source - TOI