Berhampur: The civic body here has approved a plan to construct a commercial complex by demolishing the municipal guest house and the adjoining kalyan mandap on the Town Hall Road.

All the Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BMC) councillors have agreed to the proposal as both the municipal guest house and kalyan mandap are in a dilapidated condition.

The proposal was submitted in the council meeting of the BMC on Wednesday and it was endorsed unanimously.

"We have proposed a ground plus five floor commercial complex. The ground floor will be used for parking of vehicles, the first and second floor will be exclusively used as markets and the third floor as food court. One complete floor will be converted into a guest house and we are yet to decide the floor for the purpose," said mayor of Berhampur Municipal Corporation K Madhavi.

"The commercial complex will be built on public private partnership (PPP) mode and we will soon prepare the detailed project cost of this complex. The proposal along with the detailed project cost would be forwarded to the state government for final approval and we would start the construction work for project only when the government gives permission," Madhavi said.

Earlier, BMC had proposed to construct a ground plus four-storied building for a recreation facility for kids, restaurant, shopping mall and a guest house at a cost of Rs 6 crore three years ago. But it was sidelined.

The two-storied municipal guest house was built in 1961. All the 28 rooms in the guest house are in bad condition.

The building needs white-washing since many years. Water leaks from the roof of the building during rains. A restaurant managed by a private party on the ground floor and a conference hall on the first floor has been shut since last one decade.

Earlier, the council meetings of the BMC and many meetings of the private organisations were held in the conference hall of the municipal guest house. But council meetings of the BMC are now being held in the recently-built conference hall inside the BMC office complex. The condition of the conference hall also deteriorated after it remained closed most of the time, said a source.

The kalyan mandap adjoining the municipal guest house is also in a very bad condition. The four rooms and the dining hall in the kalyan mandap is in a dilapidated state. These two buildings are not economically viable, said an official sources.