[Reader-list] Change in Industrial landscape in calcutta

[ranu ghosh]

The changing industrial landscape of Kolkata: documenting the
transformation of a half century old factory, Joy Engineering Works,
into Kolkata's South City Project, "Eastern India's largest mixed use
real estate development"

Posting 6:

sorry for the delay in posting 6

THE NEIGHBOURS OF SOUTH CITY

On November 1, 2005, Malini Bhattacharya, member of National
Commission for Women wrote a letter to the Chairman, of West Bengal
Pollution Control Board, " This is to let you know that we live at
B2/3 KMDA Complex, 39A Prince Golam Mohammad Shah Road, Kolkata 95 and
that just behind our block of flats, the South City Building Complex
is coming up. ….. For the last fortnight or so, 24 hours piling
operations have been creating noise, heat and vibrations that are
simply intolerable for senior citizens like us. The continuous noise
and dust has been having severe repercussions on the health of my 90
years old mother in law".

Prof. Bhattacharya, who shifted to this locality a few years back,
laments that in 2003,, EMAMI hospital cum pharmaceutical factory was
supposed to come up in the premises of Jay Engineering Works.
Overnight it changed to the South City Complex and the project has
created trouble to the neighbours ever since. Big flowering trees have
been indiscriminately cut down, the water body is being
indiscriminately filled up, the sewerage system in Katju Nagar area
has been blocked and water logging problems in the neighbourhood have
increased manifold.

As a result of the complaints lodged by Malini Bhattacharya and other
residents like her, a meeting was held in the South City premises on
December 3, 2005. At this meeting, the South City representatives
assured that
•	Piling work will stop by 8pm
•	A darma of 20ft height and 60m length will be put up to minimize
noise and dust
•	A water trench 1m deep and 1m wide will run parallel to the darma to
absorb the vibrations.
The vibrations radiating from South City were causing damage to the
neighbouring buildings.

I have been to the residence of Bhaskar Gupta, another close neighbour
of South City, and witnessed the cracks that have developed on his
walls. The skyline from his windows has been completely wiped off by
the 35 storeys tall towers. Mr. Gupta shudders to think that when
residents begin to move into the apartments, how many degrees would
his room temperature go up by the impact of so many ACs. He informed
me with disgust that he had been continuously getting a foul smell
from his windows facing the South City. When he complained to the
builders and the matter was investigated, it was discovered that a
worker's body had been rotting amidst the debris for a few days. The
worker had slipped and fell un noticed. Nobody had missed him, nobody
had noticed his absence. Later, his family was given minor
compensation. Full compensation is still awaited.

Bhaskar Gupta had filed a court case against South City.

The Pollution Control Board  instated the PN De Committee to look into
the environmental hazards caused by South City. Details of this
Committee report have been given in posting 4. The Committee
recommended that tower 3 & 4 be broken down since they were erected on
land created by filling a  water body

The Court gave an interim order to stop construction. South City
appealed to the Court and surprisingly, the Court modified the order,
declaring that South City may have to pull down the construction if
the verdict is eventually passed against them. Ever since this court
order has been passed, South City has stopped advertising their
project. All hoardings have been taken off from the street corners and
the important traffic junctions of Kolkata and the builders have
accelerated their pace of work.  The media too has stopped reporting
about South City.  Malini Bhattacharya recalls that the journalists
had once taken her interview, but it never appeared in the papers.
Ever since the court has intervened in the matter, protests and public
debate have slackened.

Malini Bhattacharya says, and many other residents echo her feelings,
that the South City Project is not going to meet the real estate
demand in this metropolis. The starting price of the apartments is Rs.
30 lakhs and above, making them unaffordable for the common man.
South City will be an elitist pocket in the middle class locality of
Prince
Anwar Shah Road.  It will create a distinct class difference in this
part of the city.

Residents have been initially vocal in voicing their protests. They
have done road blockades and marches.  Slowly their enthusiasm is
dying out. Some say, they are being bought over by the South City.
Bimal Chatterjee, the President of the workers' union, is now South
City's agent to 'manage' the neighbours.

I visited another family in the neighbourhood. The wife refused to
discuss anything. She said with an air of irony, "Why should we have
any complain? A hep shopping mall is coming up in our neighbourhood.
That should make us happy". When I tried poking her a little more, she
showed me the door and asked me not to come ever again.….

According to a survey made by The Telegraph, 1000 to 1200 persons are
directly affected by the South City project. The public protest made
by these people could have made a difference. The question is, why
have they become so passive.

Parimal Bhattacharya is the secretary of the Nagarik Committee
(Citizaens' committee) of the local neighbourhood. – Ward No: 93.  at
the December 2005 meeting in the South City premise, he was very
vocal.  Now he has a resigned attitude. He has invested his life's
savings to build a home for himself. Now his home is overshadowed by
the towers. He says that his sons would perhaps never come back to
live here. He has to somehow spend his remaining years here.

Crusaders like Malini Bhattacharya are continuing to write letters to
the Chief Minister and the Governor   In June 2006 she wrote to the
Chairman Of the Pollution Control Board, "The four towers will soon
become a fait accompli and the WBPCB will at least have to bear some
responsibility for the perpetration of the environmental disaster
right in the heart of the already congested metropolis."

All the letters written by Prof. Bhattacharya have been acknowledged
by the respective authorities. But no step whatsoever is being taken
to stop the illegal activities.  Perhaps the vested interest of all
the major political parties have got linked to the South City Project.

South City is fast on its way to becoming a reality. The apartments
will soon be handed over to the owners. But all the voices of dissent
have not been silenced yet. Jayanta Basu, the journalist from The
Telegraph, who has been following this beat, has told me that very
soon he will come up with a bombastic story, based on the report
submitted by the Land Use Department.  To give a sneak preview to the
report, he told me that the report clearly mentions that towers 3 & 4
have been built on the water body.

Whether Jayanta Basu's story will be carried by the newspaper or not
is another question.

End of posting 6