SILIGURI - AN EMERGING CITY ?

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP SERIES

SILIGURI – AN EMERGING CITY ?

SEP 6, 2023

As promised to our Readers, our THOUGHT LEADERSHIP SERIES explores interesting topics, analyzes, and provides creative ideas for improvement. Our periodic articles are, therefore, a good starting point for readers, who want to make an impact to the world around them. While it takes time to write Books, or long Chapters, these short articles are perfect for those, who want to get a short message, within a limited period of time.

1.???? INTRODUCTION

My work often takes me to interesting locations, and very recently I returned from a week-long teaching assignment in one of the prestigious technology institutes in SILIGURI, which gave me a unique opportunity to examine the promising city, with an exploratory lens.

For the uninitiated, ?SILIGURI is one of the oldest cities of Bengal, and is located in a very strategic location, as a GATEWAY to the neighboring countries of Bangladesh, Nepal & Bhutan, as well as the neighboring 7 North East states of Assam, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland & Tripura. Surrounded by small mountains, SILIGURI is a picturesque city, well known for its Tourism, Tea Estates & Timber, and has slowly become an epicenter of Healthcare, Education & Real Estate Businesses. SILIGURI boasts of a rich cultural heritage, during our pre-independence years.

2.???? SILIGURI -? AN EMERGING CITY ?

Travelling from Kolkata, I was pleasantly surprised as it was strikingly similar, with big Malls, Shopping Complexes and big Brands, with a little bit of North East touch of Momo’s, Chinese Dishes and local people.

The local people were very hospitable, and had a regular city life through their local businesses & jobs. I also observed an Influx of people from Kolkata, and neighboring cities/states for education & jobs. The New Jalpaiguri Railway Station & Bagdogra Airport, are important connection points with the rest of the country.

As I saw through the current version, I realized that the city has immense potential of future growth, through careful selection of Businesses, jobs, and utilization of local talent.

Some of my thoughts are provided below

a)????? AS A TOURISM CENTRE

b)????? AS AN EDUCATION HUB/R&D CENTRE

c)?????? SMART CITY

d)????? ENTREPRENEURSHIP

e)????? RENEWABLE ENERGY

a)????? AS A TOURISM CENTRE

As a Hill Station, while SILIGURI is already known for its tourist attraction, I feel there is still a lot of opportunity to make it a GLOBAL TOURIST HUB. Significant BEAUTIFICATION through Theme Parks, Beautiful Gardens, Waterfalls, Museums, Statues, 4 & 5 Star Hotels, Sports Stadiums, and a Host of other modern features, will create significant interest amongst national & international travellers. Improved Tourism will help increase the prosperity of the City.

How about an annual TOURISM FESTIVAL, to build up the momentum?

b)???? AS AN EDUCATION HUB/R&D CENTRE

SILIGURI is a peaceful city, suitably guarded by Armed Forces, across the borders. This makes it? suitable centre for high quality education. It is, therefore, not surprising that SILIGURI is home to many educational institutes, universities and engineering colleges. Some of the known names are

·???????? SILIGURI INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

·???????? SURENDRA INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING & MANAGEMENT

·???????? INSPIRIA KNOWLEDGE CAMPUS

·???????? NORTH BENGAL MEDICAL COLLEGE & HOSPITAL

·???????? UNIVERSITY OF NORTH BENGAL

As I try to understand things better, SILIGURI seems to be a good location for an EDUCATION HUB/R&D CENTRE, that can attract the right talent from the country. A good academic climate will help improve the intellectual quotient of the city.

?With its existing history, how about creating a FOOD TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION HUB/R&D CENTRE ?

c)????? SMART CITY

The concept of SMART CITY (Live-Work-Play in the same vicinity), has been catching up, in India.? There are many Tier I/II/III Cities that have been earmarked for a SMART CITY Status, that has eventually attracted a lot of investment in the city/state. As a fairly developed city, we can explore the possibility of a SMART CITY IN SILIGURI, that would eventually attract a lot of talented people in the city.

How about creating a SMART CITY, with a unique advantage ?

d)???? ENTREPRENEURSHIP

SILIGURI is known for its local businesses, vis a vis a JOB CENTRE. Today, we are also seeing big brands in the locality – SBI, RELIANCE, BYJU’S, VOLVO, ZOMATO etc. In the absence of jobs, as an Entrepreneurship wave sweeps the nation, SILIGURI can be an ENTREPRENEURSHIP HUB for the local talent, with due encouragement, supervision and funding support. Such a support will create lacs of jobs for local people, and across the nation, without too much of dependence of established brands, to offer jobs to the local people. This would also help develop prosperity in the city.

How about driving ENTREPRENEURSHIP in the IT/ITeS/ET Sectors, to begin with ?

e)????? RENEWABLE ENERGY

As a Hill Station, SILIGURI boasts of a good natural climate of greenery, rainfall, sunshine offering the right climate for tea production, timber etc. As the country commits itself to sustainability & renewable energy, SILIGURI can explore opportunities in RENEWABLE ENERGY like SOLAR POWER, TIMBER SUBSTITUTE etc.

3.???? CONCLUSION

These are preliminary thoughts around the city, based on a week-long stay, and not backed up by fundamental research. At best, a few initial ideas are being brought forward. These now needs to be filtered, discussed, debated, and then get 3 SHORTLISTED AREAS to work upon.

Hopefully, we are slowly initiating a change in SILIGURI, and develop it as a SUNRISE CITY OF TOMORROW.

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