The swimming pool of Blue Mountain Country Club. A Telegraph picture

Salbari, Aug. 22: After multi-cuisine restaurants and bars it is now club culture that is slowly making inroads into the social life of Siliguri, otherwise dubbed a “sleepy” trade town.

Promising a “time like never before” is the four-acre plot here on the banks of the Panchnoi river—facing the Himalayas and flanked by a tea garden on one side—sprucing itself up to house the first full-fledged club of Siliguri, the Blue Mountain Country Club.

“The idea behind setting up a country club is to break the dull monotony of everyday city-life,” said promoter Anand Prasad. The amoeboid (shaped like amoeba, a microbe) swimming pool, quite a break from the usual rectangular ones, just supports Prasad’s explanation.

“Despite its demerits, the exciting thing about Siliguri is its closeness to nature. But very few town people actually cherish nature because there are almost no opportunities. Our country club, which will be the first real club of the town, will provide that scope,” Prasad said.

Apart from a swimming pool (there will be a separate one for children with a waterslide) multi-gym, Jacuzzi and a health spa, the club will have two restaurants (indoor and outdoor), a karaoke bar, juice corner, Japanese garden with plenty of hammocks, separate card rooms for men and women, a tennis court, library and a conference hall.

Currently, there are a few hotels, which follow the “club culture” and have some registered members. But Prasad claimed that none of them would actually match the Blue Mountain.

According to Prasad, the club will be a place where like-minded people will be able to get together and organise a number of activities. Besides, special camps for children— where they will be taught aero-modelling, radio-modelling and a host of other hobbies like gardening, pottery and paper-craft—will be held.

There will be three categories of membership —individual, family and corporate. “For permanent membership, the initial payment for each family will be Rs 30,000. There will be a monthly charge of Rs 200 per head. Temporary membership will be for a year,” Prasad said.

The club is expected to start by the year-end.