New Town, Kolkata

New Town is a fast-growing planned satellite city of Kolkata. It comes under North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is close to Kolkata and covered by New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA). HIDCO plans developing infrastructure like - roads, drains, sewerage line, water supply lines, major beautification works etc. and executes constructions like - buildings, projects, parks, museum, subways, overbridges etc. in New Town. This new information technology and residential hub is being developed on the north-eastern fringes of Kolkata. The area mainly consisted of huge acres of cultivable lands and water bodies, which have been acquired and developed in a planned manner. The process of investing in residential and industrial facilities and infrastructural development of the area has mainly started under the leadership of the then Chief Minister of West Bengal Jyoti Basu in the late 1990s. The master plan envisions a township which is at least three times bigger than the neighbouring planned Salt Lake City. New Town has been also declared as a Solar City by the previous UPA government at the centre and now the initiatives are being taken to declare this city as Smart Green City, a dream project of Narendra Modi with the help of Government of West Bengal according to a proposal submitted by Mamata Banerjee. New Town was enabled with 10.5 km of Wi-Fi Zone along the Major Arterial Road from Haldiram, near Dumdum/Kolkata Airport to Salt Lake Sector V, which also make it India's first Wi-Fi road connectivity. The stretch has already been declared as a green corridor.