New Town, where the NRI project will be located

Whenever they came down to Calcutta, Santosh Mukherjee’s friends had the same complaint. They felt like strangers in their own houses.

For the New Jersey-based switching systems expert, it was not an alien feeling. Otherwise, why would he put up at a guesthouse whenever he is in the city? And he has been doing that for the past 15 years.

Then one day he decided enough was enough.

The MIT grad teamed up with a friend, Shyamal Sarkar, and the two worked out a plan for a residential complex. It would be a slice of Americana on the fringes of the city. They would call it Rosedale Garden, an exclusive NRI habitat in Action Area III of New Town, Rajarhat. It would offer NRIs the standard of living they are used to in the West.

The complex would combine the best of both worlds, a blend of the conveniences of the West and the earthy charm of Bengal. “It’s not just about returning to one’s roots, but also an urge, a commitment to make Bengal a better place,” says Mukherjee, an ex-student of R.K. Mission Narendrapur.

The Rosedale seed was sown back in 2004 when Mukherjee was in town as technical adviser to a US delegation on electronics and telecommunication.

“We met chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and then governor Viren J. Shah. The CM wanted to know if we could contribute in any way to his emerging Bengal,” recalls the man whose business card reads ‘chief architect & director, VEKSTEC Inc and director, SANTECH Communication Inc & Dolphin Complex Inc’, but he insists he isn’t a real estate person at all.

To begin with, Mukherjee says, he “promised” to organise medical help for the idol artisans of Kumartuli and also “collaborate” in academics.

As he began working on his assignment, Mukherjee realised what NRIs like him would need for a comfortable stay in the city. The basic requirements were safe food and drinking water, an allergy-free environment and quality service standards.

So Mukherjee and Sarkar decided their complex would offer all these and more.

The initial plan for the 1,000-odd apartments, worked out by Newman & Newman of the US, was horizontal. The land needed was 40 acres. But the government said it would sanction only 16.32 acres. So the Singapore-based design firm aCTa, of architects Stephen Coates and Kevin Tan, modified the format to vertical, with 900 units, including 25 bungalows on the ground and 40-50 “bungalows in the air”. Bengal Shrachi was assigned the job of executing the Rs 410-crore project.

The core targets are three types of NRIs ? the frequent visitor, the business-cum-leisure traveller and those above 60 who like to return to their roots and stay at least six months till spring every year.

“We professionals have multiple perspectives in visiting Calcutta ? to meet family, show our children what the city’s all about and, last but not the least, to give something back,” Mukherjee says.

So what will Rosedale offer its denizens?

“A completely hassle-free environment even for a short stay,” say the developers.

There will be a business centre, office spaces, a travel bureau, a multi-cuisine restaurant, a block to harvest rainwater, a creche, a library, a departmental store and a medical unit with ambulance.

The air-conditioned apartments will be equipped with fire-protection and security systems and have built-in amenities like fridge and piped cooking gas. Each flat-owner will have a swipe card ID.

There will be a nine-hole golf course, swimming pools, tennis courts, a food park and vehicles to reach residents to the airport. Provisions stores will sell only FDA-approved stuff.

“We are looking at the minutest of details like having educated chauffeurs at the wheels of the airport-transfer vehicles, giving them a licensed revolver for greater security as well as Indian currency notes for the NRI traveller to tide over immediate needs,” Mukherjee says. “And he can e-mail us for any service required at arrival, which we will arrange.”

But closest to Mukherjee’s heart in his effort to “give back” something to the city is the senior citizens’ quarters.

“For most of us NRIs, who have had to leave our parents behind, there’s a tinge of guilt in the subconscious since, in the US, we enjoy the best of material benefits. We will have 60-odd self-sufficient apartments for the elderly in Rosedale catering to their special needs,” he says.

These apartments will have nurses, doctors and a pharmacy on call, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, round-the-clock hot water, an escalator and a library.

All they have to do, along with the other future dwellers of Rosedale, is wait for 33 months. By then, the developers hope, the complex will be ready.