Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee?s government is all set to clear a project that promises to change the skyline in one of south Calcutta?s upmarket localities.

In another three months, work will begin on a 20-storey commercial-cum-residential estate on a 60-cottah plot on Southern Avenue.

?The Rs 14-crore project has been cleared by two key departments ? finance and land and land reforms. The Cabinet is all set to give it the formal go-ahead within a few weeks,? a senior land reform official said.

Private realty firm Fort Group will construct the complex ? undoubtedly one of the tallest structures to come up on Southern Avenue ? at 5, Southend Park, where the sprawling Bedi Bhavan once stood. The mansion, on 110 cottahs, was flanked by Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture on one side and Nazrul Mancha on the other.

The decrepit, abandoned mansion had been taken over by encroachers and unauthorised vehicle repair shops, despite the owners having gifted the land to Ramakrishna Mission. The latter had then parcelled out a portion of the plot to the state government.

The government has provided the land for the project against a consideration of Rs 18 crore ? one of the single largest land transactions in Calcutta involving the government in recent times.

The government had initially expected Rs 12 crore, along with a portion of the plot in the proposed complex for a circuit house. According to officials, the land reforms department received approximately Rs 30 lakh for every cottah.

Sources in the realty business say the project is likely to alter property rates in the area. Presently, a sq ft in the elite locality is valued between Rs 2,800 and Rs 2,900. But once the project materialises, the figure is expected to shoot up to Rs 4,000.

?Work will begin this Puja and is expected to be completed in two years,? Vivek Katoria of Fort group said on Sunday.

One of the main features of the complex will be a 30,000-sq-ft departmental store on the first and second floors of the building. ?It will be the largest departmental store in south Calcutta,? Fort group?s Hariprasad Sharma pointed out.

?Seventy per cent of the area in the complex will be open space. That will help us merge the greenery we will develop with the vegetation surrounding the Dhakuria Lakes,? a Fort group official explained.