Underground Car Park
Government of West Bengal has planned for a 115,000 square feet (10,700 m2) underground car park at the northern end of Lal Dighi at a cost of Rs. 35 crore. It will accommodate about 700 cars. It will be the biggest car parking plaza in Kolkata. It will be a two-storey structure and it would not cause any harm to the existing Lal Dighi.
Earlier, three construction firms – Simplex Projects Limited, Tantia Construction Company and Samar and Samar, a joint venture with Rajpath Contractors Engineers Limited, had submitted bids on the original tender, but the Public Works Department (PWD) cancelled that and revised the plan. The state government asked private players for free parking zone for 350 VIP cars. When it failed to find a build-operate-transfer partner, it assign PWD the job of constructing the underground car park from the state government’s budget.
The plan has faced various hurdles. The urban development department and PWD have been at loggerheads. PWD and Calcutta Tramways Company could not agree on shifting tram tracks on the north-east of Lal Dighi, along the Netaji Subhas Road. When the PWD sought permission to pump out Lal Dighi water, the fire services categorically said no. The pond also acts as the reservoir for water pumps in the BBD Bag complex. The fire department has stipulated that a minimum water level of 2.5 metre must be maintained during the two-year construction of the parking plaza. Lal Dighi’s current water level is 6 metre. The project is expected to be completed around October 2010.
B. B. D. Bagh is likely to undergo a regeneration drive, possibly with financial aid from US-based World Monuments Fund and some city based chambers of commerce. Set up to further accessorise the centre of the city without losing the old world charm emanating from colonial architecture, Kolkata Regeneration Society (KRS) has been formed with the Governor, Gopalkrishna Gandhi as chairman. The other functionaries of the society include Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, mayor, Barun De, historian and Dilip Chakraborty, principal secretary, state information and cultural affairs department. It would function in an advisory capacity.
With about 8 feet (2.4 m) of the twenty feet structure likely to be above ground, engineers, architects and town planners fear that it would be an eyesore in a heritage zone. After a presentation was made to the Kolkata Regeneration Society in June 2007, the Governor has advised a reconsideration of the design.
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