Notes on the Development Prospects of Siliguri.
The city of Siliguri has had a meteoric rise in recent times. From a small town that catered to the trading community, it has, over the past 5 years metamorphosed to a city that boasts many of the appurtenances of a modern city like malls, multiplexes and flyovers. However the growth pattern has been based on a very small base of trade and its ability to attract the denizens of the neighbouring hilly regions. However Siliguri has the potential to grow to one of the major secondary cities of India and there is no reason for it not to rival cities like Pune, Baroda, Mangalore or Nashik. While this may seem to be just a pipedream at present, we believe that it is quite possible to reach this goal even in the medium term.. While there is much unrest in the region today about the rival claims of the proposed Gorkhaland region and West Bengal proper about its ownership, it is without doubt that Siliguri is the primary city in the region and no matter what geopolitical changes take place it will maintain this position in the foreseeable future, Thus it is imperative that the city should develop in a manner that will realize its potential in a planned manner instead if leaving it to the piecemeal and spasmodic growth that has crippled it potential. Even with these constraints, it is now acknowledged to be the second City in West Bengal and has the potential to b e a leading tier 2 city in India.
What are the advantages of Siliguri that can trigger rapid development?
Locational advantage:
It has been repeated ad nauseam that Siliguri is located in the chicken’s neck of India. However what this geographical location means in economic terms is not always understood. Siliguri stands in the route to all the north eastern states and it is impossible for any transport of men or materials to reach these regions without passing through Siliguri. Even if the much vaunted direct route to the North East via Bangladesh does fructify, Siliguri will still be the gateway to Bihar, Assam with rest of Northeast, Sikkim and the Darjeeling Hill area.
This is an opportunity to position Siliguri as a transport hub for the entire region. As the East West Highway inches towards completion, it stands at the crossroads of the North East as well as the route to Tibet via Sikkim. If the Look East policy of the Government of India is successful there is every reason to believe that Siliguri will be well poised to take advantage of its location to service the routes to East Asia and China as well as to the Indian north east.
To utilize this locational advantage, the City must set up a major modern transport hub that will be the intermediate stop for all goods and passenger movement, be it by air, road or rail. An apology of a truck terminal has been set up in the Phulbari and Matigara area. Lacking even basic facilities it is unable to attract even truckers for a rest stop, let alone becoming a major hub.
Siliguri has the potential to become the centre of a major Hub and Spoke type transport Hub. It is possible to integrate the Phulbari and Matigara truck terminal area with the NJP railway junction in order to provide seamless connectivity to both rail and bus passengers as well as for cargo. It is entirely legitimate to envisage a conglomeration here where bus and train passengers will transit from one form of travel to another and buses will travel from the terminal to various destinations in North Bengal, Bihar as well as to the Dooars, Bhutan and Sikkim as well as Nepal and Bangladesh . Trains will be used for transport to Assam and South Bengal and the rest of India. The railways ministry should lead the project and this will immediately attract real estate agents to build hotels, restaurants and entertainment outlets. It can be another KL Sentral that has transformed the central part of Kuala Lumpur city.
The Bagdogra airport needs an immediate revamp. It is ideally positioned to be another international air transport Hub. It is the ideal location for aircraft from Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sikkim to join the national network. A rapid transit system using the existing rail network that runs parallel to the Siliguri Bagdogra stretch can connect the airport to the proposed transport hub as well as to Siliguri town proper, including NJP.
Thus the principal driver of this development project should be the Railways which can develop the transport hub as well as the Rapid Transport System from the Airport to the hub via Siliguri town. The Airport development will be done by the IAF under the Ministry of Civil aviation.
Educational Hub
The Darjeeling District has a proud record as an educational hub. It has several schools that were once the best schools in India and have educated leaders, kings and many leaders of Industry. As a consequence of the recent turmoil in the hills, these have fallen into bad times and will take a long time to recover. Siliguri is ideally posed to develop itself as an alternate education hub. It has the basic infrastructure in place: A University (NBU), A Medical College ( NBMC) and Siliguri College a major undergraduate college. Various private institutions have also set up an engineering college, a Hotel management college and several other schools and undergraduate colleges.
The NBU has several constraints, but even so, it has set up several innovative courses and has a relatively high UGC rating. This university can be developed to rival any of the others in the region. One development that has taken place in recent years is the development of Universities in several districts like Malda, Sikkim and one is scheduled to open in Darjeeling too. This will take away the problems of conducting undergraduate examinations in its affiliated colleges which take away an inordinate amount of time and energy. NBU will then be ideally poised to develop into a research based university which can attract the best and the brightest, initially from the NE states, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal and then hopefully from the rest of the country. NBU is well placed to be the hub of research in Himalayan geography, biology and history and culture. In addition, it is possible to develop it as a centre for IT education, law and Biotechnology. Developing manpower in these fields will help to attract industry to this area which will be able to collaborate with the University in high end research.
The NBMC has never lived up to its expectations or to its potential Despite having fairly good infrastructure, the college has been plagued by an abysmal lack of Human Resources, and has become a punishment posting for Calcutta based doctors who spend at most four days here before going back to Calcutta for an extended weekend and lobby desperately to return to the metropolis. As living conditions improve and more and more manpower is created in North Bengal, it should be possible to create a strong cadre of local residents who will form the core base of the teaching faculty and this can be supplemented by attracting the cream of faculty from the major universities for short term basis. Once the departments are developed, the best of faculty will be attracted in any case, to this institution.
All possible help should be given to those entrepreneurs with a strong educational base to develop institutions, including engineering colleges, medical colleges, management institutes, and vocational institutes in Siliguri and it environs. A large student community is in itself a big spending group which can boost local business. In addition, the faculty it attracts will also boost business. The manpower development will again be one of the attractions for industry to this region.
Tourism Hub
Siliguri is well known to all tourists who visit the Hills of Bhutan, Sikkim and Darjeeling. Unfortunately it is not seen as a tourist attraction itself, but is considered merely a staging post for other tourist destinations. It is important to be able to detain tourists in Siliguri and its environments for at least one or two days. This will boost the local hotel, entertainment and transport industry. In order that this may happen, it is important to set up a coordinated tourism group, composed principally of private players. A tourism trade association like EHTTOA (Eastern Himalaya Travel and Tour Operators’ Association) comes to mind as a prime mover. In cooperation with the Government , it can identify tourism attractions in Siliguri and within driving distance and perhaps lobby for the construction of a large scale tourism nodal attraction like a large Bird Park (e.g. the Singapore/ Kuala Lumpur Bird Park) which can by itself attract tourists to Siliguri. Once the momentum is set rolling, there is every reason to believe that the entire tourism industry can develop immensely and can expand exponentially.
Health Hub
Siliguri is already the most important Health Hub for the region. It is the preferred site for most of the secondary and tertiary care for a vast region ranging from Assam on the East to Bhutan, Sikkim, Darjeeling, Parts of North Bangladesh and Bihar. This capacity has been built up entirely by private players; the government hospitals have done practically nothing in this regard. It is now important for these private players to take the step forward to develop hospitals which can be accredited by various accreditation bodies , in order to attract patients who are now bypassing Siliguri for Calcutta or Delhi, not to speak of the South Indian states. Siliguri must attract large players to its Health City. The Proposed Health City is at present just a name. The Government must move rapidly to develop the entire infrastructure that will attract the biggest names of the industry to come to Siliguri to tap the demand here which is capable of supporting at least 1500 beds in tertiary care hospitals. The development of such hubs will have a multiplier effect in goods and services which can transform the economy in its own right.
Industry
It is important that Siliguri should get it right regarding industrial development. In South Bengal, the growth of industries like small scale steel mills and chemical plants have brought misery and pollution to the less industrially developed districts, despite its role in increasing income. Siliguri‘s USP is its environment, its forests, rivers and hills. If this is lost, all is lost. It is possible to develop Siliguri without becoming prisoner of heavy, polluting industries and this should be the aim.
Siliguri should abandon its position in the Timber trade. The trade is unsustainable and this is clear to everybody that the greed of timber traders has caused loss of forests which have been exploited in and unsustainable manner for many years. This should stop immediately. The timber trade should be strictly regulated and only specific plantations should be allowed to indulge in it, with strict regulation to ensure sustainability. All stake holders in Siliguri’s development, including the general public should be made aware that unsustainable development can only lead to disaster.
However, industrial development is essential in order to increase incomes. Which sort of industries should be developed?
1 IT based industries. These can be based on the developing IT city in Matigara, which is under planning, but needs immediate growth.
2 Biotechnology based industry, particularly agricultural biotechnology, including research on tea production and development needs better orientation.
3 Floriculture and horticulture based industry needs more boosting in production and export through the proposed ‘Green Export Hub’ near Bagdogra Airport.
Siliguri can also be the base for new sunrise industries, including biotechnology and electronics manufacturing. A small beginning has already been made in the electronic manufacturing. Low cost of labour should be able to attract these industries to the area.
What are the constraints that need to be overcome?
Education levels of the labour force.
In order that Siliguri should grow to medium levels of income from its presently low level, middle and high income jobs need to be created. Such jobs will only be available for trained high quality human resources. This is at present in short supply in Siliguri. A rapid increase in the educational facilities should make it possible to develop these resources which in turn will attract the desired types of industrial investment.
One advantage is the better knowledge of English among the NE population and their natural ability to fit into the service industry. The service industry is likely to be the prime mover until the industrial projects take off. Hence, institutions to develop HRD in the service industry is an immediate need.
Infrastructure
It is obvious that all these ideas will only remain pipedreams unless there is a sea change in the infrastructure available. The never ending construction of the East West Highway has to be completed on a priority basis and better roads need to link Siliguri to the hinterland. The railway project to Sikkim needs to be finished on a war footing and the proposed transport hub (mentioned earlier) must be developed as a practically green field project. All infrastructure should be planned to be world class and should not be the shoddy second class ones that have been passed off as development in the past. The Airport and Rapid Transit system also need to develop simultaneously, preferably in a 5 year plan.
The time table may be something like this:
2010-2015:
1 Development of road, airport, Transport Hub as well as Rapid transit sy
2 Development of the Health City complex and start of at least three world class hospitals.
3 Development of the NBMC into one of the best 10 medical colleges in India.
4 North Bengal University develops into research University with grants of over 250 crores from various funding bodies.
5 Development of first class engineering college, management institution (maybe an IIM) and Hotel management institution in the public sector and a host of schools, colleges and vocational institutes, including nursing schools, paramedical schools, technical institutes in the private sector.
6 Development of at least three 5 star hotels to cater to the tourist trade as well as to cater to the MICE industry.
1 Development of industrial potential: IT city realizes full potential and Siliguri becomes an international tourism hub.
2 Other industries come into being: biotechnology industry, electronics, driven by NBU faculty.
3 All trade to NE and to Eastern Nepal as well as Bhutan and the Hill states routed via Siliguri. The transport Hub caters to at least 5000 crore business annually.
What are the requisites for this?
1 Make diversity a strength: make it possible for all groups of people, all incomes and ethnicities to participate in the growth story.
2 Develop as a transactional hub which caters to the geographical area that is dependent on it.
3 Encourage ideas and knowledge: make it a hub of creative ideas and a modern internet based economy.
4 Be creative and innovative and link up with the economy of China (Tibet) which is booming as well as the Indian North Eastern Hinterland. Link up with the ASEAN which is one of the world’s fastest developing areas.
Conclusion
It is possible to build Siliguri as one of India’s most vibrant and creative cities which would be a pleasure to work and live in. The locational advantages, including natural beauty can make it one of India’s most desirable residential areas. There are many possible sources of economic development which can transform Siliguri to a high income earning city which would attract the best and the brightest to study, work and live. The sky is the limit for Siliguri. It only needs to come out of the thinking small concept to dream big and make these dreams come true.
Dr Anjan Kumar Das MS MCh(CTVS), Clinical Research Leader
Stempeutics Research, Malaysia
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