Construction of the Durga Angan in New Town to Begin This December, Announces Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata: The Durga Angan construction in New Town that has been pending a long time is to start in this December. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced the same on Tuesday at Nabanna. This was initially announced by Mamata Banerjee in the platform of July 21 rally this year. The Chief Minister repeated the idea of her government and underlined the fact that the ground-breaking activities would be started during the following month.

The Durga Angan project proposed in New Town is projected to cost 262 crore in which the state government will be the sole financier. The project will be housed on a 12.6 acre plot and a timeline is expected of two years with the value of the project being expected to be completed around September 2027. The state government already owned the land on which the Durga Angan project was intended to be carried out, a 12.6-acre piece of land in New Town, so no new land had to be obtained. The HIDCO and the state tourism department had selected the site mostly because of the strategic location comprising connectivity and proximity to the airport and metro.  The cost of this project is a little greater than the Digha Jagannath Temple, though, Digha took a greater amount of land, and both are projected to have a great influence on the local economies and tourism. A joint trust between the state housing and tourism departments will manage and monitor the same.

The Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) has been mandated to do the project. The foundation-laying ceremony of the Durga Angan will be held in December according to the Chandrima Bhattacharya, the chairperson of HIDCO. The Mahakal Mandir complex construction will be started right after the rituals and foundation works are done.

Talking about the importance of the new cultural and religious project, Chandrima Bhattacharya affirmed that the preparation of the project in regard to design approvals, land allocation, and construction planning have already begun by the officials and project managers of HIDCO. She says that the work will be done in a gradual fashion since the Durga Angan will become a spiritual and cultural landmark in the New Town of Kolkata. She further mentioned that elaborate architectural designs of the temple complex will include the traditional architectural designs whilst encompassing modern infrastructure and amenities.

The Chief Minister also emphasized the fact that Durga Angan project will maintain the tradition of respecting various religions and cultural heritage of Bengal. When addressing the press, Mamata Banerjee made it clear that she respects all religions, namely, the Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, and every religion, caste, and community. Bengal has been the symbol of unity in diversity and harmony. She pointed out that the Durga Angan is not merely a temple or a religious building but also a similarity of cultural identity and coexistence among people.

Although Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is publicly endorsing the unity in diversity, opposition parties cite her statements and policies to showcase the policy of appeasement politics that are inconsistent with her secularization agenda. As an example, she once mentioned at a recent Eid event that the BJP type of religious politics were in fact ganda dharam ( dirty religion ), and this was taken by the opposition to mean that the BJP was insulting Hinduism. Moreover, the BJP has been very critical of her government spending the public money on Durga Angan project on grounds that the constitution does not allow the use of the taxpayer money on any given religious institution, be it a temple, mosque, or church.

Even the quote is viewed as more allegorical than attributed to any particular and harmonized policy action, particularly with the concern of whether the public should fund Hindu-based initiatives such as the Durga Angan and Jagannath Dham in Digha. The Durga Angan project mainly aims at the propagation of Bengali Hindu culture and tradition, as the Durga Puja has been recognized by the UNESCO, and does not have any direct interfaith or community development agenda inherent in the very design of the building. This is selective promotion, as it is perceived by opponents, which weakens the proclaimed equal treatment of all religions and contributes to the charges of vote-bank politics.

The building of the Durga Angan in New Town is likely to provide a new perspective to the expanding array of religious institutions in Kolkata. Following the initiation of this project, analysts are of the opinion that there will be another mega project in Digha with the Jagannath Temple project. The Jagannath Temple in Digha has already earned statewide attention and together with the impending Durga Angan the state is in a position to develop spiritual tourism destinations of national significance.

Although the state government is making a bid to form a fairy tale golden triangle of tourism involving Mayapar, Digha and Kolkata, the opposition leaders challenge this story by pointing out the political interest of such projects. Critics opine that the decision of the government to construct Hindu temples financed by the government like the 250 crore Digha Jagannath Temple is a strategic response to the BJP to consolidate its Hindu vote and not necessarily a development oriented decision. The individuals who are projecting such a boom in development usually include the state tourism authorities and the local business organizations, who have a stake in the projects.

It has already had a huge effect with an estimated footfall of over 90 lakh pilgrims already in six months after the April 2025 opening of the Digha Jagannath Temple, more than what was initially predicted and has already generated more than 100 crores of local revenue. Religious tourism is a successful activity in Digha as evidenced by this huge footfall. The next Durga Angan in New Town with an estimated cost of a bit more (262 crore) will replicate this success in Kolkata by drawing visitors throughout the year to a permanent Durga shrine. The main rebuttal is that they are still funded by the state and this creates a constitutional issue, yet the economic value and popularity of them are reality on the ground.  The Durga Angan, which is scheduled in New Town, will most likely become a festival, cultural as well as spiritual hub and also a tourist destination. The temple compound will incorporate a main temple, meditation hall, community space, cultural platform and park. Besides these aspects, HIDCO will also incorporate modern security systems, visitor facilities and accessibility facilities to all age groups and communities. 

HIDCO has released publicity of the initial architectural images of the Durga Angan complex project with a depiction of modern amenities, green areas and a traditional temple-like structure. Though, there are not yet available details of the advanced security systems, accurate visitor amenities, or minutious accessibility arrangements in the public. No official, published roadmap or a specific list of timeline as in which these specific features are to be implemented exists, except that it is planned to be accomplished within two years in general.

The project managers and individual contractors are yet to be publicly acknowledged as the project is probably still in the tendering or pre-planning stages since the chief minister announcement. This lack of detail, it is suggested by the advocates of transparency, makes it hard to ensure that the project will indeed serve all the age groups and communities equally. They contradict the governmental discourse to highlight the fact that in the absence of clear publicly available plans of universal access and community participation the project is not a universal public infrastructure project but a Hindu religious site that is being funded by the state.

It also has been pointed out by government sources that the logistical planning is already underway. The work that is concerned with the road connectivity, access to transport and facilities of visitors will be done in collaboration and coordination with various municipal and urban development bodies. Its construction period will also result in the establishment of new jobs and the emergence of new business opportunities in the locality of the New Town. Political observers feel that there is some symbolism behind this project to the state government. The government has made a number of steps in the last few years in order to come up with big scale public religious and cultural infrastructure.

The Durga Angan project is another milestone into this development line, and this has been done in other districts as well. As soon as the construction begins in December, it will take the project a constant pace, and updates are likely to follow in phases following the foundation ceremony. The State Government as well as HIDCO have said that the Durga Angan will become one of the greatest cultural monuments in Bengal in the coming years. Since the announcement is made, it is high time that the people of New Town and the surrounding areas are looking forward to the start of the construction activities next month. The Durga Angan project will add an additional chapter in the cultural landscape of Kolkata, the vision of the project is based on religious, social, and architectural influence on the city.