Kolkata Port Trust plans new township

The Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) plans to lease out 111 acres of its land to private developers to build a township. Speaking on the sidelines of a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) seminar on ‘Sustainable Real Estate’ in Kolkata on Saturday, KoPT Chairman Vinit Kumar said the proposal is pending with Centre. “We are waiting for the ministry’s approval. This proposal opens up land for residential use as well. We already have put up 26 plots on our website for leasing out but these are specifically for industrial or institutional land use. So, these plots can be rented for setting up warehouses, hospitals and other businesses,” he said. “These will have a 30-year lease and the tenant can pay the rent on an annual basis or the lump sum of the 30-year rent. These 26 plots cover an area of around 30 acres,” he added. Kumar said KoPT is also in the process of providing an additional 87 acres in Kolkata for real estate development. While KoPT owns around Rs 4,000 acres, it uses 60 per cent of the land for port-related activities. The rest is used by allied industries, he added. Earlier in the day, speaking at the CII meet, state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Minister Firhad Hakim pushed for the development of more state-of-art warehouses and logistics centres. “Not only will this give a fresh impetus to businesses, it will also generate jobs. And more jobs will mean more demand for real estate. Build warehouses and logistics hubs. We will give full support… I have been to Mumbai, Bengaluru… Delhi. All these cities are reeling under frequent traffic snarls,” he told the gathering. “In comparison, Kolkata fares the best in the country in both traffic management and movement and that is the attraction. In Kolkata, you can travel from the heart of the city to the airport in just 30 minutes — something which is unimaginable in these cities,” said Hakim, adding that flyovers at Garden Reach and Batanagar in Kolkata are slated to come up soon.