A business and trade centre comprising 38 floors will be built in New Town’s central business district (CBD), opposite Eco Park, urban development and municipal affairs minister Firhad Hakim said on Tuesday.
Hakim said around Rs 200 crore will be spent on the project.
“We are looking at a completion time of around four years for this building that will have all state-of-the-art facilities in place and will help promote businesses not only in Bengal but also other parts of eastern India,” Hakim told The Telegraph after a Hidco board meeting on Tuesday.
“We are planning a building that will provide one-stop solutions for businesses in terms of facilitation of high-level meetings, conferences and workshops, among other facilities,” he said.
The proposal to build the centre was cleared at the Hidco board meeting chaired by Hakim.
A four-acre plot has been earmarked for the trade centre in New Town that is going to be modelled on the lines of the World Trade Center in Mumbai and Kochi, a Hidco official said.
The official said offices in the building will be available on lease or ownership and the targeted market will be banks, financial institutions, corporate houses and trade promotion organisations.
Some of the lower floors will house shopping zones and act as a centrepiece and melting pot for people, a senior Hidco official said.
“This centre will add to the capacity of New Town in terms of conference halls, exhibition centres as well as office space, in addition to the shopping destination. The design itself will draw cues from the multistorey trade centres across the globe,” said the official.
Many of the existing office spaces in New Town, however, are unoccupied and thirsting for business.
New Town already has the Biswa Bangla Convention Centre that has an auditorium with seating for 3,500 people.
In addition, there are four banquet-cum-exhibition centres and a couple of mini auditoriums spread over its six floors.
An air-conditioned banquet hall is also being built on the plot next to the Biswa Bangla Convention Centre.