ENTERTAINMENT IN THE CITY GETS ANINTERNATIONAL MAKEOVER 16

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Kolkata: Kolkata’s most ambitious real es-

tate project, Urbana , is the vision of six stal-warts of the real estate industiy: the Emami ,JB , MKJ , Nahata , Shrachi and SurekaGroups. The visionaries leading these com-panies, pioneers in their own rrightht, believedthat Kolkata deserved a truly world-classresidential project. They are Kolkata ’s new

changemakers.Among the players in this elite group is

a name that evety household in this countyis familiar with. For years, the Emami Grouphas been known to match internationalbrands measure for measure with their qual-ity products and services. In keeping withthis legacy, Emami Realty has expanded injust a few years to become one of the biggestreal estate companies in the east. The figures

speak for themselves: within a very shortspan of time, the Group has developed morethan 31 projects , both residential and com-mercial , totalling over 17 million square feetof real estate. Led by RS Agarwal , a veteranamong Indian businessmen, Emami Realtybrings to Urbana the kind of experience aproject of this magnitude demands.

Founded by the late Brijlal Todi, theRs 1000 crore Shrachi Group has diversebusiness interests including agro-machineiy,engineering, real estate , information technol-ogy and healthcam. Under the guidance of

ever , soon after their foray into real estate ,they became one of the key players not onlyin Kolkata , but also in Chenna i and Delhi.They have stayed true to their corporate vi-sion of adding value to their customers ’ lives,by delivering top notch residential and com-mercial projects such as Westwind, Middle—ton Manor, Tolly Residency, Tolly Gardens,Lan sdowne Heights , Satyain Apartments,Maurya Centre, Regent Apartments andMarquis Court.

AAlmost five decades back , the late JMBachhawat , with his keen business acumen ,set up a financia l services company. Over theyears, the organ isation grew and prosp eredto become the formidable JB Group. Today,with over six companies under its banner , it

is one of the most prestigious organisationsin Eastern India with interests in real estate,leasing and renting, tea production , invest-ments and financing.

With a keen focus on understanding thecustomers ’ needs and providing world -classquality in all products and services, the JBGroup has, over the last two decades , pro-moted more than 3 million square feet ofcommercial space and developed more than100 acres of township area as part ofSouth City projects.

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The Nahata Group is one of the oldest and commercial projects across Delhi, Noida,and most experienced players in the seg- Ja ipur , Bengaluru and Kolicata.ment. From a humble beginning way backin 1928 , the Group has expanded its corebusinesses of tea plantations and real estatedevelopment. Headed by CL Nahata, withsolid support from Vilcas Nahata , the Group ’sfinancial acumen and conmiitment to stake-holders have empowered all its endeavours .Small wonder then , that it is one of the larg-est producers of green tea in the Indian sub-continent today,with tea gardensin AAssam and

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URBANA NEWS NETWORK

Kolkata: A A hundred and fift yyears ago, Kolkata was quite amodern city. It was the hub oftrade in the East; a flourish-ing, cosmopolitan melting potof cultures and traditions. But,with the influx of more and morepeople , the city was soon filledwith little cubby holes of housesand disproportionate blocks ofconcrete. Now however , all thatis about to change.

A team of talented interna-tional archhitects and designers

have been brought together bysix of the countr �s leading real

estate firms to design a new Kolk-ata. Led by the Emami , JB, MKJ ,Nahata , Shrach i and SurekaGroups , the team has created thetownshi p Urbana , the addressof Kolkata ’s tallest towers. Theproject is pplanned to provide its

residents with an internationalurban lifestyle, without the grow-ing evils of city life, such as pollu-tion , heavy traffic , rising costs of

power and even global warming.Heading the team is the gift-

ed Stephen Coates. A A celebrity in

the indust iy, Coates hheads acra

International , one of the leading

architecture and design firms inAsia. He is bbest kknown for proj-ects such as the Residential Tow-er Fortune in Beijing, Prince ’sBuilding in Central Hong Kong

and the Ministry of Defence inBr istol. As Princi pal Architect ofUrbana , he has already brokenmany a convention to design atownship that will help changethe future of urban Kolkata.

but extremely gifted Boonchai

Saku lthamrak , Green Archi-tects has grown to become one

of the most sought-after land-

scape design firms in tthe East

in just a decade. They have

completed prominent projectsin various countries all overthe world , which include thelikes of The Imperial , New Del-hi , considered by most to beone of the finest luxury hotelsin Asia , and the Royal PhuketMarina , a world class resort in

Thailand.In addition , international

engineering firm Meinhardtis also on the team , bring ingto Urbana over five decades

of experience in n dynamic andcreative solutions using cut-ting edge technology. Workingas Innfrastructural Consultants,Meinhardt is focused on tak-ing real estate development inn

Kolkata to the next level.This illustrious team is

joined by two Kolkata-basedarchitects , Suubir Kumar Basuu

and SN Sil. Basu has been in-volved in most of the major re-alty projects in and around Kol-kata for tthe past tthree decades,and was a member of the High

Power Committee that laidlaiddown the building rules forthe Kolkata Munici pal Corpo-ration. Sil too , has been a partof the Kolkata real estate scenesince the late 1980s. Current-ly, he is one of the city’s mostrespected architects , havingworked with clients like SouthCity, Shrachi , Great EasternHotel , Globsyn , and Sunrise.

‘ Grow ing up in the city isnot what it used to be,” saysNiharika Bansal, mother offive year old Rohini. She

rues the fact that for most

it encourages cognitive de-velopment (Smith , 1982)

by improving discovery,reasoning and manipulative

skills (Danskv, 1980).

Emami, JB, MKJ , Nahata ,Shrachi and Sureka Groupshave come together to cre-ate a township keeping in

mind the needs of children.

children , the nearest parkor pplayground is often anhour’s drive away.

Niharika is not the onlyone with h this problem today.As the green disappears rap-idly from tthhe city in the wakeof the real estate boom, theworst hit are the children.

There is a rap idly grow-ing body of evidence thatplay is essential for childdevelopment. In fact , stud-ies have revealed that youngmamma ls cannot do with-out it (Brown lee, 1997) and

Playing outdoors alsopromotes pphysical fitness

and good health (Angler ,1992), wwhich is even more

pertinent considering thealarming number of chil-dren suffering from obe-sity, cholesterol and lethargythese days. A major cause

of these early disorders isbelieved to be the lack ofadequate parkks and play-grounds for children in mostneighbourhood s of Kolkata.

Taking the cue from

these startling facts, the

Coming up just off the EMBypass, in n Anandapur , the66-acre Urbana townshi phas 33 acres of greens withinand most importantly, dedi-

cated children ’s parks andplaygrounds.

Easily accessible fromthe township’s G÷45 and

G+4o towers , Urbana ’s vast

green landscape promisesto give tough competitionto video game monsters andpr ime time TV, while sue-cessfully keeping kids out of

their parents ’ way.

The other luminary in theteam is structural consultant

Pre drag Eror. One of the big-gest names in architecture in theMiddle East, Eror has over twodecades of experience in struc-tural dynamics, seismic designs,

underground , as well as steeland composite structures. Hehas been involved in some of themost challenging projects in theworld , including the Sail@Ma-rrina Bay, Singapore , the world’slargest retail area — — the Duba i

Mall and the unconventional Sig-nature Towers in Duba i.

Urbana’s extensive green-scapes are designed by in-ternational architectural andlandscape design firm, Green

Architects. Led by the young,

URBANA TIMESCHANGING THE ENVIRONMENTBEGINS AT AT HOME 12

EET THE CHANGE� ERS

The architects of change are here Kolkata kids to get morenatu re for nurt ure

URBANA NEW S NE1W ORK