Centres to come up in Vijayawada and Vizag; Tirupati in pipeline
Design of the Vijayawada convention centre on the bank of the Krishna River.
Hyderabad: The AP government has finalised locations for international convention centres in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam and has invited bids from developers. The Vijayawada convention centre will be constructed on the banks of the Krishna River, at Ibrahimpatnam, on a 33-acre parcel of government land at an estimated cost of Rs 263 crore.
In Vizag, the convention centre will be constructed on one of the hills of Madhurawada on the seafront at a cost of Rs 380 crore. According to an Infrastructure Corporation of AP official, one of the hills owned by the tourism department, spread over 53 acres in Madhurawada, has been earmarked for the international convention centre. The project site is between the national highway and the beach. The tourism department will be the concessioning authority and Incap the transaction authority.
“The government will also provide external approach roads. Both the projects will be in Public Private Partnership mode on Design-Build-Finance-Operate and Transfer basis,” the official said. In Vizag, apart from the convention centre that will house 5,000 people, the project will have an exhibition centre, a five-star hotel and a commercial complex.
“The convention centre will not have events throughout the year. The star hotel and the exhibition centre like HICC will help in revenue generation,” said the officials. In Vijayawada, the convention centre site is at Ibrahimpatnam, opposite the upcoming capital city Amaravati. “The project site is between the river and NH9. It will have a four-star hotel, a commercial plaza and a exhibition centre,” said an official.
AP does not have an international convention centre after the bifurcation and the Visakhapatnam Novotel can only hold around 1,000 to 1,200 people. As both the projects are expandable, at least 17 different agencies have shown “Expression of Interest”. Incap will be issuing a request for proposal for a convention centre in Tirupati too.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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