Bhubaneswar, Nov. 27: The civic body is planning to construct an auditorium-cum-commercial complex on a plot at Saheed Nagar that was earlier meant for construction of a public library.

The 2.61-acre plot behind the office of the director of Nandankanan, which has been lying unused for decades, was earlier considered for construction of a zonal office of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, but the civic body has now changed its mind and it now plans to construct a public information centre-cum- commercial complex there.

Municipal commissioner Sanjib Kumar Mishra said: “We want to have a structure which will fulfil a requirement of Fortune Towers and Jaydev Bhavan. But as the flow of funds is restricted, we will go for construction on the public-private partnership mode so that office buildings can be constructed besides the auditorium.”

“The original idea to have a library building will definitely remain with the project. But in the age of e-learning, we do not want to have a library with classics and literature, but with our own resource materials on the civic body, its projects, plans, town planning materials and old books written on the city and the civic body. There will also be a magazine section there,’’ said Mishra.

The civic body has published a public notice inviting expression of interest on the project from experts. “After getting their proposal, we will know the cost of the project and the amount of our share. However, we are not going to spend anything as the entire infrastructure will be made by the private partner,” said BMC project officer Srimanta Mishra.

He also said that the civic body could have a good share from the property as there were wide roads there near the plot. Wide roads ensure that the floor area ratio could be more and the developer could have higher returns through using multiple floors to optimum use.

From the share received from the property, the civic body wishes to get some good return as it is already having a bad time with funds flow.

On the other hand, the auditorium will ensure congregation of people for various event organised by the civic body.

At present, the civic body has no auditorium in the city to organise public meetings. It can also be rented for assured income.

While the civic body is planning to have the new structure at Saheed Nagar, local councillor Padmanabh Dash is sceptical about the idea.

“We have seen that in all the public-private partnership projects, either the civic body has not received its due share, or it has failed to sell the share to arrange cash inflow or the displaced people are not rehabilitated properly. So, the civic body should not use the land at Saheed Nagar, which has a huge market potential,” he said.

Mrutyunjay Tripathy, a resident of Siripur, said: “It is a good thing that the civic body is going to have an auditorium with office buildings at Saheed Nagar. But the same idea should also be replicated in other areas of the city.”