Calcutta, Feb. 9: Calcutta looks set to house the subcontinent?s first underground aquarium, a cavernous water world teeming with marine life from across the globe.

The Rs 500-crore project, in the last leg of finalisation, has been spearheaded by the chief minister, who has been working on the initiative for the last eight months.

?I have asked all government departments to stake this aquarium project because it has the capacity to propel Bengal into an international league of tourist destinations,? Bhattacharjee last week told a small group of ministers and officials handling the project.

In tune with the chief minister?s ?Look East? policy, talks are being held with one of Singapore?s largest corporate entities, Hawpar Group, and several Singapore architects for designing, constructing and managing the aquarium.

Hawpar, which has a real estate empire, banks and pharmaceutical companies, runs a giant aquarium on Singapore?s Sentosa Island.

The foreign company, which provides professional and technical expertise for not more than one project in a country, has also been approached by the governments of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra and their private collaborators for similar aquariums.

However, sources said Hawpar is in the process of picking Calcutta as the location for the Indian edition of the aquarium because of the better prospects of availability of land.

The Bengal aquarium is expected to come up off Rajarhat New Town, close to the airport, on the back of a public-private partnership. Such a collaboration is the first of its kind in Bengal?s outdoor entertainment sector.

?When Buddhadebbabu thought up the project, he told some of us that he has an underground Noah?s Ark in mind,? said Kiranmoy Nanda, the state fisheries minister and the head of the group overseeing the implementation of the aquarium project. ?This aquarium is going to pull in Gen X, investors as well as high-spending tourists by virtue of its scale.?