MAKEOVER MODE: The Old Mint, on Strand Road, lying in neglect since 1952, will be converted into a prime tourist draw. A Telegraph picture

The old mint on Strand Road, lying in neglect since 1952, is set to be a prime footfall hub in the city by 2010.

A mint museum, an Indology centre, a heritage hotel and a retail-edutainment corner will be among the major draws in the 12.5-acre compound.

The Rs 148.87-crore adaptive reuse project, to be steered jointly by the Union finance ministry and private parties, will ensure that the facade of the heritage buildings on the sprawling premises are not tampered with.

Officials said Union finance minister P. Chidambaram, whose department owns the complex, is eager to have the project completed before the Commonwealth Games 2010 kick off in Delhi.

Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi has given his nod to the makeover, which has also been greenlighted by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation’s heritage conservation committee.

There are eight structures in the compound and each has been assigned a role. The Silver Mint (the facade of which was modelled on the Temple of Minerva, in Athens) will house a mint museum and a financial hub, while the mint master’s quarters will host an archive and a centre for Indology.

A convention centre will come up in the Copper Mint and a retail-edutainment-performing art centre in the CRPF quarters.

The Red Building and the Yellow Building have been earmaked for a heritage hotel. The Warehouse is reserved for a banquet hall and an art and craft centre and the Workshop for an ethnic food court.

“I hope this joint-venture makeover will serve as a model for the conservation of other institutional heritage structures in the city,” civic commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay said on Tuesday.

The finance ministry has set up a company, Security Printing & Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL), which will enter into a joint venture with private parties to execute the project.

Security Printing & Minting has appointed IL&FS Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd as adviser. IL&FS, with help from heritage architects’ firm Appropriate Alternative, has drawn up a detailed project report.

A development feasibility study and market research has been carried out by Cushman & Wakefield.

On a request from the civic body, Security Printing & Minting will create space for parking 732 cars in the complex, though building rules do not allow more than 569.

The building was constructed in 1824 and minting of silver coins started in August 1829. It had a capacity to mint three to six lakh silver coins a day. Medals and decorations of the British regime were also made here. The operations ceased in 1952.