Months after land bank order,KMDA in no man’s land

Around eight months have passed after the announcement,but the KMDA is yet to document anything about the land it has acquired. Bhattacharjee said,“The KMDA is yet to show any progress in this regard. But the agency is working on it.”

Pranbandhu Nag,a KMDA official,however said the project of creating a land bank is already doomed. “The KMDA will not be able to create such a bank as the entire land acquired by the KMDA has been sold out to promoters,” he added.

At the last meeting on February 13,2009,the minister had asked the KMDA to accelerate the process of creating the bank and expressed concerns for the delay in preparing a report with necessary ground maps for Baishnabghata Patuli Area Development Project and East Kolkata Area Development Project.

According to a senior KMDA official,the authority was asked to complete the work by 31 January 2009. Five months have passed after the meeting,but the KMDA seem to be struggling with the task.

“The work on the land bank is on. But as of now,we have nothing concrete to tell. Our plots are yet to be specified and documented. We are still working on it,” said S K Barat,joint secretary (works),KMDA.