Dwarka’s convention centre to compete with Pragati Maidan 2.0

Six years after it was first conceived, work on the mega exhibition and convention centre — India International Convention & Expo Centre — will finally commence over the next two months. It took a lot of effort from the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation and an intervention from the Prime Minister’s Office to finally get land in Dwarka to construct the project that will be spread over 90 hectares and will have a built up area of over 10.7 lakh sq km. Besides, to avoid any charges of a sweet heart deal in handing over land to a private player, the project design was changed to ensure that the main complex comprising the five halls, including the convention centre, are built by awarding a contract. Now, “non-core” areas such as hotels and commercial space will come up via the PPP route. The delay has also meant that IICC will have to compete with an upgraded Pragati Maidan to host events. While the entire project is targeted for completion in 2025, the first phase is likely to be ready in two years, consisting of a convention centre to seat 10,000 delegates and two exhibition halls spread over 80,000 sq m. The idea is to complete the project in 22 months with a monthly incentive of 1% for the contractor if phase I construction is ahead of schedule. With the Union cabinet clearing the Rs 26,000 crore complex earlier this month, DMICDC is planning to award two contracts — to build the key elements of the first phase of the complex and the agency to run it — next month. “We want the operator to be in place before construction begins so that we can get design inputs and, if needed, the plan can be tweaked based on feedback,” said an officer. It is early days but several global contractors — from L&T and Shapoorji Pallonji to China Construction and Samsung — as well as operators from countries such as Germany, Singapore, Hong Kong and the UAE have shown interest.