NKDA to allow day & night cafés in residential buildings

Kolkata: New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) has decided to allow day and night roadside cafés in residential buildings, by imposing nominal charges.

The decision was taken in its recent board meeting held on August 8. It was chaired by Debashis Sen, NKDA chairman. Other officials of NKDA, along with senior officials of North 24-Parganas district administration and people's representatives were present in the meeting.

One such café is functioning near Chinar Park. The

café has glass window panes and remains open till late

night.

The main motto of the same is to develop a sense of security among the people, by visiting the café late at night. Two more such shops are coming up near Eco Space and off the Narkelbagan crossing.

The Greenfield City New Town is being gradually populated and lots of new housing complexes are coming up. It may take some more time to reach the designed population of one million.

Meanwhile, it is felt that the floating population in New Town is sharply going up, as it is becoming the IT hub in the state.

As the employees of IT and ITES sectors attend duties during day and night, cafés which may remain open till late in the night may be encouraged. To implement this, the cafés may be allowed to be set up in residential buildings.

At present, NKDA allows 40% use of the total floor area of residential buildings for commercial purposes, according to Notification No. 2287- UD/O/M/HID/5-M 36/2014, dated July 14, 2015, of the

state Urban Development department for 61 types of activities.

The permission is granted for five years. The owner has to deposit Rs 500 as application fee and Rs 80 per square feet is charged as per the provisions of the notification.