[Venue-selection] Kolkata

[Tulika Bose <[e-mail]>]

Hi All,


   I strongly feel that Kolkata is a great venue for conducting IETF meetings. As a co-author of an RFC, I feel it would be a great opportunity and would encourage a large number of researchers, including ones from the emerging economies in Asia to participate actively in the meetings in larger numbers, both from industry and academics, who face a lot of difficulty in arranging funds from their projects for travelling to the venues and many a time fail to attend them due to these constraints. Kolkata is well connected to important cities in Asia like Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Dhaka, Kuala Lumpur etc in the east and to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha to the west. Provision of direct connection to cities of US and Europe is being discussed at the moment and is most likely to get started within coming years. Kolkata, being the Gateway to the east of Asia, has continuous business interaction with many countries in Asia and as such holding IETF here should attract immense visibility and sponsorship. Not only that, the 'city of joy’, as it is well known, meets almost all the requirements including amenities and a conducive atmosphere, for being chosen as a venue. The Biswa Bangla Convention center (BBCC) in Kolkata has sufficient infrastructure and substantially large space to hold parallel tracks of meetings, plenary, competitions and the like. Besides, it has access to uninterrupted high speed broadband with no content-based restriction. 


Moreover, the BBCC is built in a very strategic location. It is just 10 km away from the international airport which takes around 20-25 min to travel even in busy hours of the day. Also, there are ample air-conditioned public transport to and fro the venue till late hours at night.  Besides, there are several reputed 5 star to 3 star hotels, with great facilities, spread around the convention center, apart from the hotel co-located with the center which would be able to provide comfortable accommodation to all the participants. The area is in close proximity to facilities including a number of restaurants that provide varied cuisines, shopping malls and other attractions and recreation centers. Moreover, the venue has easy access to police station, fire station and reputed hospitals equipped with state of the art treatment and facilities. The icing on the cake is that the BBCC is built in a green zone, which maintains minimal pollution amidst surrounding greenery. The region is the hub of IT industries ranging from TCS along with its research division, Cognizant, IBM, Accenture, PWC, British Telecom, Cap Gemini and others. The renowned Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) and the University of Calcutta has extension campuses around the place. The world class Eco Tourism Park spread over a vast area (more than 480 acres) with major attractions, the Rabindra Tirtha and the hanging restaurant viz. the Biswa Bangla gate that are located in the surrounding area would provide ample facilities for hosting gala social events, dinners and other gatherings. 


In addition to these, Kolkata being the cultural capital of India, offers great places to explore in and around the city. The splendid Victoria memorial built in the British regime, elegant mansions with Indo-European architecture, beautiful and varied parks and lakes, the well known Eden gardens (the cricket stadium that has hosted numerous major International matches including the World Cup), Salt lake stadium that hosted U17 FIFA world cup are few of the numerous attractions in the city. Besides the region is located near the world’s largest delta and a trip to the mangrove forests of Sundarbans National Park (2 hrs journey from Kolkata) which is a home to the famous Royal Bengal tiger , or to the numerous beaches of the Bay of Bengal would be worth it. Kolkata is a safe, cosmopolitan and a foreigner friendly city with a soul of its own.

Thanks & Regards
Tulika Bose
Researcher
Embedded System and Robotics
TCS Research and Innovations
Tata Consultancy Services

Mailto: [e-mail]
Website: http://www.tcs.com
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