The much-awaited shopping complex on the sprawling Jaipal Singh Stadium complex in Kutchery here, built at a cost of Rs 40 crore, is unlikely to be inaugurated on Gandhi Jayanti since chief minister Raghubar Das would remain extremely busy on that day.
“The complex is now likely to be inaugurated on October 11 since Das has a tight official schedule on October 2 and he might not be available to do the honours,” said an official of Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC).
The civic body has also postponed the meeting of the vending committee scheduled on Thursday evening. The meeting was called to take a final call on allotment of shops to vendors and other related issues.
“Yesterday (Monday), a circular was issued to call a meeting of the vending committee. But it has been cancelled since vice-president M. Venkaiah Naidu is scheduled to visit the city on Thursday. The vending committee meeting will now be held on October 1,” deputy mayor Sanjeev Vijayvargiya said on Wednesday.
“Shops have to be allotted to some shopkeepers before inauguration. If we hold the meeting on October 1, all formalities cannot be completed in a day,” he added.
RMC city manager Vikash Shukla said the 30-member vending committee consists of mayor Asha Lakta, deputy mayor, municipal commissioner Manoj Kumar, officials from Ranchi police and traffic police, three NGOs namely EKJUT, ADRI and Mahila Housing Seva Samiti and 11 nominated vendors.
Located close to the district collectorate, the G+4 building spread over 50,000-sqft area has 478 shops on the ground and first floors. Besides it has 110 offices on the second floor, 23 offices on the third floor and a banquet hall on the fourth.
A civic official said Das was originally scheduled to inaugurate the shopping complex on Independence Day but could not find time because of his hectic schedule. It has been built by Calcutta-based company Singhal Enterprises.
After the death of former Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee, the launch was further delayed and was fixed on the birth anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri on October 2.
