One hundred and forty one years after the first horse-drawn tramcar was started in Kolkata, the British legacy has come to rescue the government of West Bengal in a roundabout way.
The massive land acquired by the British in the city to set up Calcutta Tramways Company (CTC) was obtained so “cleanly” that nearly one-and-a-half centuries later, while putting up the land of CTC on lease, the government is not facing any major legal hassle.
Government officials told The Hindu that the British government “land deeds were handwritten without raising the pen from the paper and (the papers) were meticulously maintained.”
The deeds, made after Independence, by other State-owned transport companies, are much less “clean” and as a result it is becoming difficult to lease out the land.
In early 2013, the government of West Bengal decided to put “surplus” land — the bus and tram depots of State-transport companies — on 99 years’ lease, extendable for another 99 years.
Altogether, 29 depots of various State transport companies will go under the hammer and the highest bidder will bag the most lucrative land plots of Kolkata, spread across the city, over next years.
However, the first three depots of CTC in Kalighat and Kidderpore in south Kolkata and Gallif Street in the north had already changed hands.
Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC), headed by industrialist Sanjiv Goenka, got substantial portion of “surplus” land in all three depots through competitive bidding.
On Tuesday, CESC was “supposed to pay” nearly Rs. 28 crore for 4.08 acres of depot land in north and south Kolkata, said government officials.
Bidding process is on for another set of three more depots. “…whoever gets the four acre land of Tollygunje (tram depot) will be selling off flats to people from which one can see two Golf Courses – the Royal Calcutta Golf Course, the second oldest golf course of the British empire in London, and another old golf course at Tollygunje,” Transport Secretary of West Bengal Alapan Bandyopadhyay told real estate barons at a recent conclave.
International consulting company KPMG is acting as the transaction adviser and one of country’s oldest law firm, Fox & Mandal, is providing legal assistance to the project.
According to the officials, the Transport department puts an annual subsidy of Rs. 550 crore to run buses and trams. Of which, approximately Rs. 200 crore goes to CTC.
Once the big business groups physically obtain the land, between three and six months after signing on the dotted line, they can use the depot land for any commercial venture.
