An air-conditioned banquet hall is being built on the plot next to the Biswa Bangla Convention Centre and in front of Disha Mahanagar eye hospital in New Town.
“It will be a permanent structure which will be a hangar kind of hall spread over the seven acre plot. During the Bengal Global Business Summit, we have to build a temporary hangar to host lunches. Since guests have to step outside in the heat, it gets inconvenient. So we thought of a structure that would be integrally connected to the convention centre,” said a senior Hidco official.
At the ground level of the convention centre, there will be a tunnel going underground and connecting the two structures internally.
Though use during the business summit is the reason, the authorities expect the banquet hall to be in use through the year. “We will rent it out separately. We do not allow social events at the convention centre. But this hangar can host wedding receptions,” the official said.
The authorities will also be trying to bring international exhibitions here. “Industrial exhibitions require unimpeded space with several other specifications. That is why we are not building a higher floor so that there are no columns required to support that. There will be a kitchen at the back and an office space too,” he said.
Architecture firm Dulal Mukherjee & Associates, which had planned the convention centre as well, is in charge of the banquet hall plan.
The structure is expected to be ready by the end of the year, in time before the next global business summit.