DLF-Bengal govt ink pact for housing complex

Real estate major DLF and the West Bengal government today entered into an agreement to build a township and an industrial hub at Dankuni in the Hooghly district at an investment of Rs 33,000 crore public-private partnership (PPP) basis.

The project to be christened "Dankuni World Township" would be built on 4840 acres of land. The project would be completed in the next 15 to 20 years, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said.

Senior officials of Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) and DLF signed the MoU.

Out of the total project area, 771 acres of land has been earmarked for industry, Bhattacharjee said. Textile, food processing and engineering industries would be set up the earmaked industrial area. Around 1,872 acres have been kept for housing.

The process for acquiring land at the project site near Durgapur Expressway, NH2 and NH6 would start shortly.

About 600 families will be evicted from their land in the first phase in which 1,644 acres of land will be acquired. The projects to be taken up there will be finished in five years.

"People who will be evicted will be adequately compensated.People who will lose their residences will be rehabilitated near the site of the projects and all help will be rendered to them so that they can eke out a living,'' the chief minister said.

"The notices for land acquisition are ready. But we will issue them only after talking to people from different social groups. The district magistrate has been instructed to issue them only after talking to panchayats, political parties and local people,'' Ashok Bhattacharya, minister for urban development said.