Kolkata projects to be named after Jyoti Basu

Kolkata, Jan 30: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) Saturday announced that three of its projects will be named after late Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu.

The projects are a water purifying and treatment scheme, a workers' housing complex and a multi-storied housing project for slum dwellers.

"The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has decided to name the Dhapa water purifying and treatment project after the legendary leader," Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said while addressing a memorial meeting for Basu at the civic body headquarters here.

"A workers' housing project and a multi-storied complex for housing slum dwellers will also be named after him," the mayor said.

The Rs.100-crore Dhapa water treatment plant project would benefit around 10 lakh people living in at least 10 municipal wards in Kolkata.

The workers' housing project at New Alipore in the southern part of the city and the slum dwellers' housing scheme at Rajarghat in East Kolkata are the civic bodies' initiatives to provide concrete houses to slum dwellers and KMC workers.

Marxist veteran Basu died of multi organ failure Jan 17 at a private hospital in Salt Lake after he was admitted on Jan 1 with severe pneumonia.

Basu served as the chief minister of West Bengal for 23 years from 1977-2000.