The site of the CPM?s new headquarters on AJC Bose Road. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

Calcutta, July 12: Faced with a space crunch, the CPM has decided to shift its headquarters from 31, Alimuddin Street to a new address ? 74 A, A.J.C. Bose Road.

Alimuddin Street has been the ruling party?s home for more than two decades ? on July 12, 1981, the late Promode Dasgupta, then CPM state secretary, had unveiled the four-storey building. Former chief minister Jyoti Basu and his other cabinet colleagues were also present at the occasion.

Since then, the building, named after one of the party founders, Muzaffar Ahmed ? also endearingly called Kaka babu ? has been the party?s power centre.

The building, which earlier housed the office of the CPM mouthpiece Ganashakti became the full-fledged party headquarters in 1997 when the daily was shifted to another address on A.J.C. Bose Road.

?But we have been facing tremendous space problems in carrying out our day-to-day jobs. A bigger area is the need of the hour as we have to keep pace with the enormous increase in party activities,? Basu said.

According to him, the new building, which is on the main road, can be reached without any hassles and can be identified more easily.

Like many others, the veteran Marxist, who turned 93 this month, finds it difficult to negotiate the narrow lane leading to the 31, Alimuddin Street headquarters. Parking is also a big problem.

CPM state secretariat member Benoy Konar said a 15-cottah plot has already been acquired by the Promode Dasgupta Trust. The senior party functionary has been assigned the task of overseeing the project. The building is expected to come up by the end of next year.

?The trust had embarked on the job under the aegis of the late comrade Anil (Biswas) when he was alive. But now we will have to carry it forward to complete his unfinished work,? Konar said.

He added that the headquarters would have enough rooms to accommodate party leaders coming from far-flung districts.

?Our leaders from the districts find it difficult to stay here overnight due to lack of accommodation. We shall be able to easily address the problem once the new building comes up.?

Senior party leaders associated with the project feel that once the proposed building comes up on A.J.C. Bose Road, the party office will be in the vicinity of a numbers of offices of its sister organisations. ?We already have the Promode Dasgupta Bhavan, which houses the party?s Calcutta district committee office there besides offices of Ganashakti and DYFI, the party?s youth wing,? said a leader from central Calcutta.