Delhi’s Pragati Maidan is undergoing a makeover to prepare for G20 Summit to be held in 2019. The venue will get an Integrated Exhibition-cum-Convention Centre (IECC) spread over in 123 acres, with a 500-room hotel, large food and beverages complex, pools, moving floors and helipad, besides exhibition halls. For this construction to take place, the Defence and Haryana pavallions have been razed and demolition work at Hall No.1 is going at full pace. A total of 27 halls and pavilions including 23 state pavilions, six ministry pavilions, eight halls (No. 1-6, 14 and 15) will be razed.
However, air-conditioned exhibition halls (7A-H, 8,9, 10,11,12,12A &18) will not be demolished and the annual IITF for 2017 and 2018 will be held in these halls.
According to a report in the Hindustan Times, the IECC is a flagship project of India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) under the commerce ministry, will be inaugurated with G20 Summit in early 2019. It is expected to compete with world’s best exhibition complexes like Crystal Palace in London, Biosphere in Montreal and Eiffel Tower in Paris.
“The Rs 2,254 crore project will have a state-of-the-art convention centre with seating capacity of 7,000 – five times the capacity of Vigyan Bahawan. After redevelopment, the exhibition space at Pragati Maidan will also get doubled to 1.19 lakh square metre (sqm) as against the present 65,000 sqm. We hope to complete the first phase of construction by early 2019 when IECC may host the G20 summit,” said Rita Teaotia, Secretary, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
The commerce ministry wants this project to become a high-tech connection between the city, its people and the global community. IECC also has a parking capacity of 4,800 cars.
