Bhubaneswar, April 10: Bookings for weddings and other social events will not be allowed at the Unit-VIII kalyan mandap after June with the corporation deciding to build a multi-storey state-of-the art office complex of 1.5 lakh square feet there within two years.

The building will cost the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation more than Rs 100 crore. But in the first phase, four storeys will be built for Rs 40 crore. Demolition of the existing structure of the kalyan mandap near the Unit-VIII DAV Public School will begin after June.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said: "To house all major sections, presently functioning under the corporation, 80,000sqft of a built-up area will be developed within two years. The National Building Construction Corporation has been selected for the design and construction supervision. We have also written to the state government to obtain an administrative approval, and it is likely to be given shortly."

While the Unit-VIII kalyan mandap has become the latest location identified for the main corporation office building, in 2007, a similar complex had been planned on the existing premises at Kalpana Square. Later in 2011, after demolition of the bachelor's barrack at Unit-VIII, there was a plan to hand over the land to the civic body for its central office, but it finally went to the police department.

Last year, a five-acre plot at Madhusudan Nagar, where the office building was planned, has to be shelved at the last moment as the AG Odisha office claimed that the general administration department had already allotted that particular plot in its favour in the 1970s.

Jena said there would be no issues with the Unit-VIII kalyan mandap land, because it belongs to the corporation.

"We have already asked the officials concerned not to book any event at the Unit-VIII community centre after June," the mayor said.

Explaining the design details, engineer B.K. Parida said: "There will be ground level and basement parking at the Unit-III office building. While the major access areas such as public contact offices and counters and the main council hall will be on the ground floor, other departments will be on other floors. There will be a waiting hall, chambers for councillors and a lounge for the media."

Parida also said the office building, besides having a main council hall, would have four mini conference halls. The project will be executed through the green housing building technology, and there will be less consumption of power and maximum use of natural lights and air to make it cooler than the regular buildings.

The corporation's main office building will also trap non-conventional energy such as the solar power to harvest electricity and help reduce carbon emissions.

Once the main office building is built, the existing 47,000sqft office building will function as a zonal office. There is a plan to develop four to six such branch offices in the city for better decentralisation of the administration process.