[Reader-list] changing Industrial landscape in Kolkata

[ranu ghosh]

hi everyone,apologies for the delayed posting.



*The Changing Industrial Landscape of Kolkata: documenting the
transformation of a half a century old factory, Joy Engineering Works into
Kolkata's South City Project, "Eastern India's largest mixed use real estate
development".*
  POSTING 2

*South** City** Project at a glance: *

Located on Prince Anwar Shah Road opposite Jodhpur Park, the South City
Project is touted to be Eastern India's largest and tallest residential
township.  It is spread over an area of 31.14 acres of land. The South
Cityproject will have four towers, out of which three will be 35
storeys high,
and one 30-storeyed. Total numbers of flats will be1600. An investment of
Rs. 1,500 crores has been made. Work on the project started in 2004 and is
expected to be complete by December 2008. Presently, tower II and I have
neared completion, foundations for towers III and IV has been laid and
initial construction started.  Some of the biggest name in the real estate -
the Emami Group, the Rameswara Group, the Sureka Group, the Shrachi Group,
the J.B.Group and the head of The Eastern India Tea Co. Ltd., and the Merlin
Group of Companies - are involved behind the South City Project. **

* *

*The other side of the wall:* In 2005 I have been documenting the south city
construction mostly from top of the nearby houses as entry to the site has
been completely restricted to me. I have been talking to local people and
evicted labourers who were living outside the wall then. The wall was raised
around the erstwhile Joy Engineering factory area to make way to the
construction work. There were only two entry points to the construction site
where the developers put heavy security checks. I saw that the evicted
workers of the factory along with their families were still living there in
crude hutments and shacks adjacent to the high wall outside the construction
site. It is here I met Ramesh, one of the evicted workers. He had also put
up there like others as that area belonged to the Calcutta Municipal
Corporation (and thereby outside the purview of South City Projects). I
found out that some of the evicted families were also living in makeshift
tents on the nearby fields and in abandoned houses. Lack of proper
employment opportunities led the evicted workers to penury. They continued
to live like lost souls along the adjacent locality of South
Cityconstruction area. The displaced workers of Joy Engineering, who
were
skilled technicians mostly, had to accept odd jobs. Some became vegetable
sellers, or gatekeepers of jewellery shop and multi-storeyed buildings. A
few tried out as bus conductors and some were completely out of job. A few
committed suicide apparently out of poverty and depression. They were pulled
down from a secured and graceful life into an everyday of uncertainty and
disgrace.

Ramesh was recalling about 3rd March 2004, the day of eviction, "The
developers, armed with the police and local hoodlums came in to throw us out
of our quarters. There was no female police. Even then the policemen did not
hesitate to forcefully pull out women members of our families!" The helpless
labourers mutely witnessed the destruction of their homes, utensils being
thrown away. They saw their children's school and playground demolished in
front of their own eyes. Ramesh's house was demolished too. Never were they
informed of the sale of the factory land, or handed out an eviction notice
and the subsequent demolition of their residences.

Ramesh informed me that most of the workers had accepted the Voluntary
Retirement Scheme (VRS) which was almost forced upon them. The Joy
Engineering authority made the deal happen with the active support from the
trade union leaders of the company. But there were fourteen workers who did
not accept the VRS offered to them as compensation. Ramesh was one of them.
They filed a court case against Joy Engineering. While interacting with
Ramesh I heard of Sambhu Prasad Singh, a third-generation worker of Joy
Engineering (JE). It was quite a revelation for me to know that Sambhu is
the loner who had decided not to leave his quarter. It was definitely a
stubborn and brave decision to make! He was then living slap-bang in the
middle of the mammoth real estate.



During my shoot in 2005 I had documented Bikramgarh Jheel, a large water
body in the backyard of the South City Project area. This water body is one
of the largest natural waterbodies in the southern suburb of Calcutta spread
over 7 acres of area. It is a natural habitat of a varied species of birds,
animals and insects. When I came back to shoot in early 2006, I noticed that
a corner of the water body have already been filled up. South
Cityconstructors have started filling it up slowly to construct tower
III and IV
of the high rise complex. I immediately enquired about it and found out that
Vasundhara, an environmental group, filed a case in the High Court against
the developers for the illegal filling up of the wetland. It alleged that
the developers filled up 1.31 acres of the waterbody and the West Bengal
Pollution Control Board officials gave illegal permission. I also met
Bhaskar Gupta, a resident from that locality who has filed a case against
'West Bengal Pollution Control Board and Ors' in Calcutta High Court. The
case, filed on the basis of a signature campaign among 250 or so resident
families, accusing them of allowing severe environmental pollution caused by
the construction work and filling up of the Bikramgarh Jheel. In spite of of
these court cases the construction work continued and the foundation of the
tower III and IV had been laid.


End of posting 2




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