Land-grab delays projects

KOLKATA: Encroachment on several stretches along EM Bypass is proving costly for the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA). More than 130 acres of prime land, which could be a mega revenue earner for KMDA, are lying unutilised due to encroachment.
While KMDA officials fret over these prime properties, their political bosses are going slow on evicting the encroachers with an eye on the assembly elections.
A major business park project, which would straddle 100 acres in Nonadanga off EM Bypass, is stuck in this encroachment muddle. The expression of interest (EoI) document for this first-of-its-kind project' in the state, is with KMDA but it could not float the tender as the encroachers need to be removed first.
The authorities had actually planned to auction the land in 2008. But the recession pushed the project on the back foot. When KMDA revived it last year, the site had already been encroached by shanty dwellers.
The water theme park is another big bucks project that has got stuck indefinitely due to encroachment. International Amusement Limited, which had set up Appu Ghar in Delhi, was selected along with Bengal Shrachi Housing Development Limited, to build a water park on a 32-acre site near Ruby hospital. The project cost was pegged at nearly Rs 100 crore and it was supposed to take off by 2006.
But illegal shanties and other unauthorised structures came up as a hurdle.
Encroachment has always been a major problem for government agencies in development projects. With land prices along the EM Bypass shooting through the roof and hardly any vacant land left, KMDA was hoping to earn a lot of money by auctioning the 100-acre plot.
In 2005, KMDA sold a 6.2-acre plot for a record Rs 209 crore or about Rs 33 crore per acre. A real estate company bought it for a five star hotel. The dream run continued in 2006 when KMC sold a 5-acre plot off EM Bypass to a private real estate developer for Rs 154 crore or about Rs 30 crore per acre. According to KMDA's land use records, it has sold nearly 2,000 acres of land it had on EM Bypass, Salt Lake, Baisnabghata Patuli, Garia, Sonarpur and other places within the Kolkata Metropolitan Area in the last few decades.
However, things have not been that good in the last few years. KMDA was expecting to reap several hundred crores of rupees from the 100-acre Nonadanga plot but given the volatile political scenario, it is uncertain if the squatters will ever be evicted.
KMDA is also trying to recover 150 acre of land it owns in and around the city that has been either grabbed or encroached. Recently, it recovered some land to build homes for the economically weaker sections.