kolkata the announcement of the secretariat shift temporarily to mandirtala and permanently to dumurjala has led to a wide range of speculations but one thing is for certain the poor cousin of the city will come of age finally and one breed of professionals real estate agents are particularly upbeat about the changing fortunes of howrah they are certain that realty prices will skyrocket by anything between 25 and 50 once the secretariat relocates already the vidyasagar setu and kona expressway the 10km highspeed corridor have given birth to modern highrises exquisite bungalows schools and hospitals shopping malls swanky car showrooms and logistic hubs once the government implements the shift an additional 10 lakh people will start living and working in howrah according to a howrah municipal corporation estimate the total area that has been developed for civic living on either side of kona expressway and national highways 6 and 3 is a whopping 1000 acre while howrah improvement trust hit alone is setting up housing and retail centres on 750 acre along nh6 private players like the kolkata west international city and bengal unitech are coming up with townships retail centres and logistics hubs some of the duplex houses on the expressway or on either side of drainage canal road are already priced at rs 1 15 crore a 1100 square feet flat in a housing board complex adjacent to the dumurjala lake is priced at rs 55 lakh resale value at present the price of a cottah of land is rs 6 lakh at present if the administrative headquarters come here it will immediately shoot up by more than double said rabi poddar a local real estate agent i am happy that finally the state government is paying attention towards this part of howrah which is developing well and does not have the congestion of central or north howrah said shyamal krishna mukherjee additional public prosecutor of howrah district court a large number of property buyers are either moving out of kolkata in search of a less congested living or are nris many are buying second homes here as retirement destinations i scoured many projects in kolkata before i settled for kwic i wanted to avoid the congestion of kolkata yet stay at a place from where i could easily drive to the city this place is a 10minute drive from rabindra sadan thanks to the highspeed track said dubaibased professional ranjan sen