CM to inaugurate New Town's Convention Centre mid-October

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will inaugurate country's one of the finest and eastern India's biggest Convention Centre in New Town around the middle of October.

Round-the-clock work is being carried out to give final touches and Firhad Hakim, state Urban Development minister visited the centre and supervised the work recently. He will visit the construction site again on Sunday. A coordination meeting was held on October 3 where senior officials of Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO), New Town Kolkata Development Agency (NKDA), Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and L&T, the constructing agency were present.

The Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) in 2018 will be held at the Convention Centre. HIDCO took nearly three years to translate the Chief Minister's dreams into a reality.

The Convention Centre has a mega convention hall with a seating capacity of 3,000 people which is highest in any auditorium in the country. The seating capacity of the main auditorium of Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi is 1,200 while those of Shanmukhananda Hall in Mumbai, main convention centre at HICC, Hyderabad and Science City auditorium, Kolkata have 2,750, 2,500 and 2,232 seating capacity respectively.

There will be four large exhibition halls including a state banquet with a total carpet area of 17,000 square feet and spacious pre-function area having a carpet area of 12,500 square feet. A garden food court linked to exhibition halls and two smaller capacity auditoria each with a seating capacity of 434 people will also be present at the convention centre. There will be extensive food and beverage facilities during conferences through provisions of banquet kitchens and satellite kitchens at all levels. There will be 112 twin-beded rooms and a business centre with 10 meeting rooms. There will be two specialty restaurants and a 24-hour coffee shop. A business club covering an area of 8,000 square feet comprising a state-of-the-art gymnasium, billiards room and cards room will also be present. An exclusive gents and ladies spa along with gents and ladies salon covering an area of 7,000 square feet with a terrace level swimming pool will be a major attraction of the centre. The Convention Centre has 640 strength car parking facility and 92 open parking and 15 bus parking facilities.

It may be recalled that the Mamata Banerjee-led government had urged Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) officials to set up a Convention Centre which will be a pride of the state. Accordingly, plans were taken and L&T was entrusted to build the centre. In the past three years, Debashis Sen and other senior officials of HIDCO had regularly visited the site and held meetings with their counterparts in L& T to ensure that the centre becomes an impeccable piece of architecture, designing and construction.