The CMDA building in Sealdah that will be sold to a private consortium. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Sealdah is set to join the list of prime city spots hosting a mall.

The CMDA, keen to cash in on the retail boom, will sell a nine-storeyed building in Sealdah which will be developed into a mall. The 19-cottah property — the building stands on 11 cottahs — will fetch the cash-strapped state undertaking around Rs 30 crore.

“The sale will be finalised shortly. A tender was floated and Riddhi Siddhi Mall Management Private Limited, representing three firms, won the deal,” said Debdas Bhattacharya, the director-general of the traffic and transportation wing of the CMDA.

The three companies that have joined hands to form Riddhi Siddhi Mall Management — a special purpose vehicle — are Pantaloons, Keventer and Happy Group.

A section of employees, however, feels the plot could have earned more. “The structure and the adjoining land is worth much more than Rs 30 crore,” said P.B. Nag, the general secretary of the Development Employees of Joint Action Committee.

The CMDA built the building in 2004 at a cost of Rs 10 crore, after it decided to vacate an adjacent nine-storeyed building it had constructed in 1984. Half the earlier building housed the Sealdah court and the other half was occupied by CMDA offices.

But the judicial department wanted the entire building for itself and offered the 19-cottah plot to the CMDA to construct another building. The agency accepted the offer and decided to shift its headquarters in Auckland Place and other offices to the new premises.

But by the time the new building came up, the headquarters and the other offices of the CMDA had moved to Unnayan Bhavan, in Salt Lake. The Sealdah building remained vacant and there was hardly any upkeep.

A funds crunch, meanwhile, prompted the CMDA to sell its properties at prime spots. Earlier, it had sold a Bypass plot to the Emaar group which will build a hotel and another in Dankuni where DLF will set up a satellite township.

Officials said the proceeds of the sales will be spent on development projects.