Here's one more reason to work for ITC - DNA
December 28, 2012
There's another reason to work for tobacco-to-hotels major ITC, if working on some of its disruptive brand successes in recent years, such as Bingo and Vivel, hasn't given you a high already.
The Kolkata-headquartered company is building a 25-storied residential tower for its top-level executives in the heart of the city.
Construction is likely to be completed by January and ITC's top honchos are expected to move in by March, sources said.
Considering the tower has been planned with 44 apartments, it is expected that a similar number of top executives of ITC and its subsidiaries, like its IT arm, would get to reside here. Currently, ITC's senior management personnel live scattered in several parts of the city.
ITC's tower overlooks on the north-western side the race course of Royal Calcutta Turf Club and the Victoria Memorial, the most iconic heritage monument in the city.
On the east, right next to the plot, lies the Calcutta Club, the second most desired destination of city's have alls after Tollygunj Club.
Apart from being an enviable destination, the location, 241/2, AJC Bose Road, is no ordinary site; its previous owner was the US government whose marines guarding the US consulate and the American Centre (located next to ITC's headquarter Virginia House) used to stay there.
That's also why the project got delayed.
The marines were sent back in the early 90s and the US government decided to sell it off in 2002 as it couldn't find any other use for it.
The US consulate found a ready buyer in ITC, its neighbour on Jawaharlal Nehru Road.
But securing various approvals for the project took years, which even frustrated chairman Yogi Deveshwar, according to company officials. Finally, the building plan was approved in May 2010.
The project is billed as the city's first high-rise green residential building in Kolkata Municipal Corporation area. ITC has taken the help of Nobel laureate RajendraPachauri's The Energy and Resource Institute (Teri). Construction is being done by Larsen & Toubro, while Thomas Associates of Bangalore is the principal architect and Coordinate Techno Consultants of Kolkata the resident architect.
