CONTENTS Certificate Undertaking Acknowledgement EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 6 1. INTRODUCTION 7 1.1. Background 7 1.2. Need for research and Major research Questions 7 1.1.1 Need for Research in the Selected Area 8 1.1.2 Need for research in the Topic 8 1.1.3 Research Question 9 1.3. Aim of the study 9 1.4 Objectives 9 1.5 Scope and Limitations 9 1.6 Methodology 10 1.7 Report Structure 11 2 Development Planning Process and Environmental Acts and regulations 13 2.1 Acts and Regulations 13 2.1.1 Various Acts and regulations 13 2.1.2 Municipal Corporation and History of its development 15 2.2 The Indian Scenario 17 2.2.1 Environmental Laws in India 18 2.2.2 Briefing the NUIS Sceheme 19 2.2.3 Zoning Atlas for Siting Industries guidelines 19 2.3 The Mumbai Case Study 20 2.3.1 Lessons from the case study 21 2.4 The Case of London - 22 3 KMA Profile 26 3.1 The KMA region 26 3.1.1 Various Juridictions in KMA 26 3.1.2 Natural Bariers 27 3.1.3 Evolution of city and direction of development 28 3.1.4 Real Estate sprawl 30 3.2 Kolkata Metropolitan Area Description 30 3.2.1 KMC Area 31 3.2.2 Rajarhat Area 33 3.3 Regional Environmental Quality 37 3.3.1 Water quality standards in the Area (Source: Cemsap Report, 1999) 37 3.3.2 KMC Area Canal system and issues related to the existing situation 41 3.3.3 Drainage and Flooding 48 3.3.4 Weltands 49 3.3.5 Ground water situation 50 3.4 Demographic Profile 51 3.5 Rajarhat New Town Project Profile 52 3.5.1 Proposed Landuse 52 3.5.2 Transportation System 54 3.5.3 Urban Services 56 4 Development Impact Analysis and Findings 59 4.1 Estimating Land use transformation 60 4.2 Analysing Land Suitability for New Town Area 61 4.2.1 The Method of Analysis 62 4.3 Housing Demand supply Gap Analysis 66 4.4 Stress on Existing Natural Resources 69 4.5 Estimating Stress on existing infrastructure system 70 4.5.1 Storm water drainage 70 4.6 Future Scenario Analysis for Real Estate developments 73 4.6.1 Case 1 : Business as Usual Scenario - Real estate development remains same as presenr growth rate 73 4.6.2 Case 2: Real Estate growth rate accelerates 75 4.6.3 Case 3: If Real Estate Construction rate decelerates 76 5 Conclusion and Recommendation 81 5.1 Conclusion 81 5.1.1 Major recommendations for zoning of several planning areas in New Town site 81 5.1.2 Need for ZAST (Zoning Atlas for Siting Townships) 83 5.1.3 Framework for ZAST 83 Probable zones for development shown in map 85 The most suitable zones in the CBD areas as salt affected land where individual residential units should not be developed. It can be suitable for commercial developments which can treat the soil conditions 85 5.2 Way Forward 86 List of Tables List of Figures List of Maps List of Charts List of Graphs List of Abbreviations Annexures