The pool under construction near Chinar Park. (Saradindu Chaudhury)

A Rajarhat club is building a swimming complex that will provide services free to those who cannot afford membership. Work is nearing completion and the pool, located near Chinar Park, should open by the end of the year.

The complex is named Rabindra Shatar Prashikshan Kendra and will have two pools as well as a commercial complex attached. Besides a learner’s pool, there will be a 50m long, eight-laned pool that will even host tournaments. The open-air pool has two shaded galleries on either side that will seat around 300 people.

The pool is the initiative of Tapas Chatterjee, chairman of Rajarhat Gopalpur Municipality and general secretary of Lalkuthi Parthanagari Netaji Sangha, that is building the complex. “The rich can drive to the clubs in the city proper and avail of pools there but the poor cannot,” said Chatterjee. “Residents of our area who are below the poverty line will be allowed entry free of cost but others will be charged.”

The cost of the complex is around Rs 3.5 crore and it is being funded by donations. To meet the maintenance cost of the pool once it is open, the commercial complex will be rented out. “Part of it will have gymnasiums and changing rooms for swimmers, but the rest could be let out to banks, offices, restaurants and as banquet halls,” said Bishu Roy, an executive committee member of the 51-year-old Netaji Sangha that is well-known in the area for the Kali puja it organises.

“The commercial complex will have basement parking for around 15 cars and have five storeys overhead,” says Madhumita Roy, head of the architecture department at Jadavpur University who has been roped in for the project. “There will be two decorative water bodies in front of the complex with a statue of Rabindranath Tagore in the centre. Another small water body on the roof will beautify the terrace garden. The project has been in the making since 2007 and there is about three months of work left,” Roy said.