Calcutta, Jan. 2: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has decided to hold the forthcoming Partnership Summit 2006 on the grounds outside Salt Lake Stadium.

The industry body was on the look out for an alternative venue following objections raised by Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on selecting National Library for the business meet between January 18 and 20.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had apologised to the readers of the library for inconvenience caused to them during last year’s summit.

Yet CII went ahead with its plans to hold the meet at the same venue again.

The new venue was finalised during a meeting today attended by state chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb, industry secretary Sabyasachi Sen and CII officials.

Infocom 2005, India’s biggest information, communication and technology exposition organised by Nasscom and Businessworld, an ABP group publication, was also held at the same venue.

The controversy erupted last week when Bhattacharjee publicly said CII cannot hold it again at National Library.

Ravi Poddar, CII chairman, eastern region, had said CII would honour the chief minister’s wishes. “We have the capability to hold the meeting elsewhere.”

The Partnership Summit 2006 is expecting more delegates as the date and venue was decided upon a year back.

There will be about 1,500 delegates and speakers at the summit. Many sit-down lunches and selective meetings, spread over four hotels ? Taj Bengal, ITC Sonar Bangla, Oberoi Grand and Hyatt Regency ? have been arranged.

There will be about 400 foreign delegates, including ex-Filipino president Fidel Ramos, ex-Singaporean chief executive Goh Chok Tong and Czech president Vaclav Klaus.

The plenary session was scheduled to take place at National Library as there are few places that can accommodate all the guests and speakers.