Firhad Hakim inaugurates sale of brochure of Gitabitan Township in Santiniketan

Firhad Hakim, state minister for Urban Development department on Tuesday inaugurated the sale brochure of the proposed Gitabitan Township coming up at Santiniketan.

Ten brochures have been sold and there were more than 50/60 telephonic inquiries, Debashis Sen, chairman of Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) said on Tuesday. HIDCO will be constructing the township which will come up on 100 acre of land. The Township, named by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, will come up near Biswa Bangla Biswavidyalaya that will be set up by HIDCO.

The proposed buyers will have to pay application money worth Rs 50,000, Rs 75,000 and Rs 1 lakh respectively depending on the sizes of plots. There will be three variants, namely, plots measuring 2.5 cottah, 4 cottah and 6 cottah respectively. The price for per cottah of land will be Rs 2.75 which includes sanction fees. The plots will be allotted on the basis of lottery.

HIDCO will construct three model houses for buyers to see. There will be duplex type houses with dining room and kitchen on the ground floor and bedrooms with attached toilets on the first floor.

There will be shops with arrangements for the owners to stay on the first floor. The landscaping will be done keeping in mind the heritage and tradition of Santiniketan.

There will be all modern facilities like children's

park, shopping areas, senior citizen's park etc and HIDCO will help those who would want to have their houses constructed by it.

The overwhelming response from buyers on the inaugural day shows its demand. The state government has already come up with a township policy. The lottery to select the plot owners will be held around Durga Puja and construction is likely to begin towards the end of 2017.

The other five townships are: Agnibina in Asansol on 59 acre of land, Teesta on 51 acre of land, Uttam City, Baruipur on 89 acre of land, Dumurjala in Howrah on 51 acre of land and Samriddhi at Kalyani on 50 acres of land.