The Mullickghat flower market in Howrah. A Telegraph picture

The flower market at Mullickghat will be built without the proposed revolving eatery atop a 100-ft high tower.

The mayoral council in its meeting last week approved the construction proposal for a basement and a three-storeyed building, which will house the market. The civic authorities rejected the proposal for the revolving restaurant on the top of a tower.

“The Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority had objected to the proposed tower on the grounds of height restriction on the riverfront. At the city police’s request, we have laid down the condition that the basement can be used only for parking,” said mayoral council member (building) Dipankar Dey.

The state government, too, has approved the project, subject to clearance by Calcutta Port Trust, which is the custodian of the riverbank.

ICCI Infra has been engaged as the construction consultant for the project, to come up on a 4.8-bigha plot, said Sudhanshu Sil, the local MP and the chairman of the Mullickghat Phoolbazar Parichalan Samity.

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is expected to flag off the Rs 26-crore project in the last week of February, added Sil. “I hope that Calcutta will finally find a place among international flower auction centres.”

West Bengal is the third largest flower producer in India, after Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, said state agri-horticulture minister Mohanta Chatterjee. About 6,500 tonnes of flower are produced in the state annually. However, Calcutta’s share in the Rs 600-crore floriculture business in India, is only Rs 30 crore.

The cost of building the flower market cum international auction centre — the first in the state — will be shared by the Centre’s agricultural product export development agency, the state government and banks.

There will be facilities in the market to sort, grade and package flowers. A cold store will help to preserve flowers and a laboratory can be used to extract essential oils.