Salt Lake planner revisits town

Prithvijit Mitra & Suman Chakraborti | TNN Kolkata:

Dobrivoje Toskovic’s tryst with Salt Lake began 40 years ago when it was just a blueprint. The Yugloslavian architect was flown down to draw up the masterplan for Kolkata’s first satellite township. He gave shape to a township that has grown manifold over the years and inspired several more in and around the city. More than four decades later, 81-yearold Toskovic revisited Salt Lake on Tuesday to check out if it had grown according to plan. And, he came back impressed. “It has grown into a lovely garden city, just as I had planned. There are community housing, parks, clean roads and the traffic management seemed fine. I did feel a bit nostalgic today. But more than anything else, I felt proud that the city had developed just the way I had wanted it to,” Toskovic said. He visited Central Park, several blocks in the township and was elated to see the greenery all around. “The roads are nicely lined with trees, which is a wonderful sight.” Toskovic arrived in Kolkata a few days ago to attend a prize distribution ceremony and decided to visit the township on Tuesday. “He was happy after visiting the township, saying that much of his plan had materialised,” said Bidhannagar municipality chairman Biswajiban Majumder. The Belgrade-based architect had emphasised greenery, which he had wanted in 50% of the township. “He visited Central Park and was happy that his wish for greenery in the township had been implemented,” said a civic official. Toskovic said he had planned to use the central patch of greenery (Central Park) to hold cultural programmes and to set up a treasure hall. He was happy to learn that various cultural programmes and fairs were being held there. He was also pleased that most of the blocks had community halls of their own, as planned. However, he lamented the absence of landmarks. In his masterplan, he had earmarked all the corner plots for institutions that could serve as landmarks. Besides, the islands in the middle of the roads were much bigger in his plan. And, he had kept highrises completely out of it.