Now, Buddha complains over land prices in Kolkata satellites

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Kolkata, Nov 3 : After Azim Premji and Narayan Murthi, now West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is complaining about the high prices of land at New Town Rajarhat.

Increasing prices at the satellite township are pushing away companies from setting up their offices, said Bhattacharjee. The commercial land price at the township has touched Rs 7 crore per acre.

Earlier, the state government had offered Wipro and Infosys land at Rs 1.8 crore per acre, which the companies were not ready to pay. The prices at New Town have increased to Rs 7 crore from around Rs 2 crore per acre in last two and a half years.

“The price of land is increasing everyday. Companies like Airtel, ICICI, Jindal Group want to set up offices in Rajarhat. Lakshmi Narayan Mittal is also planning to set up an office in Rajarhat. Housing minister Gautam Deb is asking for Rs 7 crore per acre. This is a serious problem for us,” said Bhattacharjee. He was present at the 36th IAHS world congress on housing science.

When contacted, Sumantra Choudhury, managing director of West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corp Ltd (HIDCO), said, “The price of land at Rajarhat went up as the overall mood in the market was quite high for last few years. But we feel it is reasonably priced even now.” HIDCO has played a pivotal role in the development of infrastructure in New Town Rajarhat area.

Sources in the housing department said land near EM Byepass, a few kilometres away from Rajarhat, was sold to an insurance company at Rs 80 lakh per cuttah (almost one-sixtieth part of an acre) earlier this year.

According to Choudhury, land prices of the satellite township was never over-priced and so it has not come down yet, even after realty prices in different parts of India have started declining. “We can think of bringing down the prices of the land for any project if there is such a proposal,” he said.

Harshvardhan Neotia, chairman of Ambuja Realty, said prices of land at Rajarhat are difficult to come down. “Considering the infrastructure cost in the area, it is difficult for the state government to lower the prices of land there,” he said.