The first transport terminal of New Town, Rajarhat, is coming up on a 15-acre plot in Action Area I.

Housing minister Goutam Deb visited the site, on the township?s main arterial road, on Friday and asked the officials accompanying him to complete the project within three months.

The terminal, which will be of great help to the families that have already shifted to New Town, will hold 15 to 20 buses, 25 taxis and 30 autorickshaws. ?No permanent structure will be set up. There will only be sheds for passengers and bays for buses,? asserted Deb, also chairman of Hidco, the implementing agency of the township.

?It will not be the ordinary bus terminus we are accustomed to. You can call it a green terminal, for it will be encircled with mounds of soil and trees. I have asked the officers and engineers to start work from today,? Deb added.

Talks are on with the Regional Transport Authority for issuing permits to buses, minibuses and autorickshaws to operate in New Town.

Hidco officials said only BS II-compliant buses and minibuses would be allowed to ply in New Town. The routes will be drawn in such a way that commuters do not face any problem reaching BBD Bag, Sealdah and Howrah stations and the airport. The routes and the number of buses will be increased on the basis of demand. There is also a plan to extend the routes of some buses terminating in Salt Lake to New Town.

Defending the decision to allow autos to ply in the township, the minister said more than 50 per cent of the residents will be from the low-income group and the economically-weak section and would need a cheap mode of transport.

?The autos, however, will ply only on connecting roads and bylanes. They will not be allowed on the arterial roads,? Deb asserted.

Hidco director-general Subodh Bhattacharya said three major housing estates ? built in joint ventures by Bengal Ambuja, Bengal Peerless and Bengal Srachi ? have come up in Action Area I. Another housing estate, Balaka, has come up exclusively for the economically-weaker section.

?At least 500 families are now living in New Town and over 2,000 workers are going there every day to work on various projects. The transport terminal, once ready, will help them a lot,? Bhattacharya said.

Hidco has framed a traffic and transportation policy for New Town, modelled on the Singapore system. According to the plan, at least one mini-transport terminal will come up in each block and one central terminal in each Action Area. Buses to all directions, including inter-state buses, can be availed of from the central terminals.