West Bengal all set to host smart cities

Ever since the identification of six locations across West Bengal to be developed as part of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious 100 Smart Cities project recently, potential investors and other prospective stakeholders have started making beeline at Nabanna, the headquarters of the State Government. Several top notch business houses from across the globe have also shown keen interest in transforming these places into smart cities.

Firhad Hakim, the West Bengal Urban Development Minister, is quite optimistic about this project. He stated on his party—Trinamool Congress—website that this project will transform the entire demography of the State and that plethora of proposals to set up IT hub and financial hub have started piling up in the ministry.

The six locations spotted for the purpose across the State of West Bengal are Debgram, Bolpur, Kalyani, Asansol, Dumurjala and Baruipur. These locations have varied land plots, from 50 acres to 127 acres, available for developing the state-of-the-art smart cities. The West Bengal Government has already started resolving long-drawn land woes by distributing land via e-auctioning. The government is all set to woo investors and remove all possible roadblocks in the path of development of the State. The first e-land auction is going to be held in the month of September.

Development of the State is the one of the top priorities of the Government. Recently, a core team of high officials attended a meet on urban development in Istanbul, and tried to project West Bengal as a potential destination for development.