Reliance to redevelop market in Kolkata

KOLKATA: Reliance Industries (RIL) on Friday got the green signal from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) for the redevelopment of a major municipal market in the metropolis and a 99 year lease on it.

The decision to allow the private behemoth to redevelop Park Circus Market was unanimously taken at a meeting of the mayors-in-council. It will be ratified at the next sitting of the councillors' house, Mayor Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharaya said.

The Mukesh Ambani company was the highest bidder with a Rs 30.33-crore offer for the redevelopment work.

The company will get a 99-year lease on the market situated in the heart of south Kolkata, Bhattacharaya said.

He was, however, non-committal about the entry RIL's agri-retail business in the market. "Nothing can be said about it now," he said.

The go-ahead to RIL came just over a week after the green signal from the CPI-M-led Kolkata district committee of the state's ruling Left Front.

The decision was delayed for over a month following strong opposition to the entry of private players in the agri- retail business in West Bengal from non-CPI-M allies in the Left Front, including the Forward Bloc.

Forward Bloc leader and State Marketing Board Chairman Naren Chatterjee had said that it was not proper to hand over prime properties like city markets to big business houses in the name of redevelopment and the Board was ready to ready to develop these markets in collaboration with KMC.