The parking plaza under Lindsay Street, which kicked off in April 2003 with an “eight-month deadline”, is finally set to be commissioned, with chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee confirming his participation in the unveil any day between April 12 and 16.

Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya said on Thursday that the chief minister will throw open the Rs 35-crore project, with room for 280 cars, on Poila Baisakh (April 15) or the day after, according to his convenience.

Following the nod from the chief minister’s office, hectic preparations are on in the Calcutta Municipal Corporation and in the office of its private sector partner in the project, Simplex Projects Limited.

The civic authorities on Wednesday approved the “final design” of the pedestrian plaza on Lindsay Street. The plan to build a cafeteria in the plaza has been shelved, as desired by an expert committee set up to study the design, said municipal commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay.

The proposed waterbody has been downsized and a cooling tower has been included in the plan to run the airconditioning system of the parking lot.

The project, India’s first underground parking lot, suffered several rounds of delays, thanks to litigations and a series of protests by New Market traders, backed by political parties. The delays for non-technical reasons have cost the promoters more than 40,000 man-days, said Arup Chaudhury, regional manager, Simplex Projects.

Though a joint venture project, the entire construction cost has been borne by Simplex Projects.

In return, it will get 20,000 sq ft of floor space in the structure, which will be developed into an airconditioned market with 170 shops.

Simplex, which has executed the project on a build-operate-transfer basis, will run it for 20 years before handing it over to the civic authorities.

During this period, the civic body will get five per cent of the revenue and the rest will go to Simplex.

The Lindsay Street facility is the city’s second computerised, muti-tiered parking bay (the first was commissioned in 2001 on Rawdon Street, off the Park Street cemetery.)

Here, a motorist will have to leave his car on a computer-driven elevator, which will take the vehicle to the floor where space is available.

A mechanical carrier will then pick up the vehicle and assign it to the designated slot.