Pragati Maidan revamp to be wrapped up in Sept this year
The redevelopment of Pragati Maidan, which began in 2018, will be completed by September this year, officials said on Sunday.
LC Goyal, chairman and managing director, India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO), said, “The redevelopment work-including the testing and commissioning (which is basically to hold events to ensure seamless functioning of the new setup)--is progressing at a fast pace and will be completed by September this year, except for one hall that will be completed by November.”
He added, “The landscape work has already started. The construction work will be done by June- end or July, but we need some time to test all the facilities.”
Pragati Maidan’s redevelopment work started in 2018 and was scheduled to be completed by the second half of 2020. Goyal said that the project was delayed due to a shortage of workers, especially skilled, during the pandemic.
To meet the September deadline, efforts are being made to increase the number of workers at the site to expedite the work.
“The work has resumed at full scale. Currently, we have 5,000 workers at the site, and in the next few weeks the number will go up to 6,500,” said Goyal.
Officials said the annual trade fair will be held in November on a grand scale so people get to experience the revamped space. Last year, the trade fair was held in four of the seven newly constructed halls. This year, just one hall will not be available for the annual event.
Of Pragati Maidan’s total 114 acre-area, 87 acres are being redeveloped at a cost of ₹2,700 crore, including the construction of seven new state-of-theart exhibition halls, a 7,000-seat convention centre (a plenary hall with the capacity to seat 3,000 people and a multipurpose hall with the capacity to seat 4,000 people), a fivestar hotel, green spaces, parking for close to 5,000 vehicles, etc.
The revamped exhibition and convention centre is likely to be the venue for the G20 summit next year, officials said.
Though a five-star hotel is proposed as part of the redevelopment project on a plot measuring 3.7 acres, ITPO plans to invite bids for it when the hospitality industry has recovered from the impact of the Covid pandemic.
“As of now, we are not inviting bids for it as the hospitality sector is still recovering from the impact of the pandemic,” said Goyal.
In 2019 and 2020, ITPO invited bids for the construction and operation of a five- star hotel as part of the ITPO redevelopment project, but didn’t get a good response.