Circa 1824: The Sanskrit College. Circa 1857: Calcutta University. 1916: Coffee House. 2010: A very contemporary and formatted retail rendezvous for books over 600,000-sq ft, spread across four levels?

Calcutta?s original books bastion, College Street, plagued by acute urban decay and smarting under the impact of swank bookstores elsewhere in town, is all set to get a new-age icon in the shape of a book mall that will replace the withering municipal market.

On Saturday, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will lay the foundation stone for Barnaparichoy, the book mall set to come up where the College Street Market now stands, as a joint venture between Calcutta Municipal Corporation and Bengal Shelter Housing Development Ltd.

Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya will preside over the function. The 1,200-odd shop-owners at the existing civic mart will be temporarily relocated on Marcus Square, only to be reinstated on the ground and first floors of the new mall after two years, according to Raja Dasgupta, director, Bengal Shelter.

The 800,000-sq-ft project, where the top four floors will house the book mall, is being designed by celebrated architect Hafeez Contractor, who also created 22 Camac Street. The developers hope to complete construction by 2010.

The book mall, which will have retailers and publishers from home and abroad taking up shop space, will boast a few firsts, promises Dasgupta. ?We will have a Book Hospital to repair old and used books to increase their shelf life, a reading room and a conference hall that can hold reading sessions and discussions, besides book releases,? he says.

Barnaparichoy will also have ?Boi Bhoomi?, a section dedicated to little magazines, a book auction centre and racks for rare books. ?We will have a wholesale counter to reach out to smaller retailers, ?Alaap?, offering music software and books, and Montmarte, a place to hold art shows and related events,? says Samar Nag, managing director, Bengal Shelter, a partner of the West Bengal Housing Board.

The book mall will also strive ?to build a bridge between authors and publishers? through a special wing, ?Boi Baksho?, which will hold regular interface to connect the writing and publishing communities.

The developers, who did a presentation at the recently-held international book fair in Delhi, report ?great response?.