By IANS
Kolkata : West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Wednesday harped on water harvesting facilities in all new buildings while urging real estate companies to build homes for the not-so-rich as well.
Inaugurating east India’s largest real estate exhibition “Realty Expo 2008” at the Science City grounds here, he said: “There should be both water harvesting and solar energy tapping facilities in the new buildings.”
Some projects in the new township of Rajarhat here have already come up with such initiatives, he said.
Bhattacharjee also urged the realtors to serve the lower and middle income groups.
“Housing projects should not only be made for the rich, but also for those who fall in the lower and middle income group,” he said while announcing that the state government had collected Rs.150 million from real estate developers for the welfare of construction workers.
Organized by the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI)-Bengal, the fair is spread over an area of 90,000 sq ft. The event showcases a plethora of real estate projects and allied industries under one roof.
Exhibit categories include property launches, residential apartments, row houses and villas, plotted land, service apartments, e-homes/smart homes, malls and commercial space, building materials, home and office interiors, home and office security, and financial and mortgage institutions.
Bhattacharjee encouraged private and public-private partnership (PPP) models to build housing and social infrastructure projects in Bengal.
Kolkata as well as some other West Bengal towns are witnessing a real estate boom of late with many mega projects and even foreign investments in the sector.