Eight years after it was first conceived, the work on the mega exhibition and convention centre — India International Convention & Expo Centre (IICC) — will finally commence from Thursday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of the state-of-the-art convention centre in Dwarka on the lines of the ones in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore for hosting exhibitions, trade fairs and summits of international standards.
The project is planned over an area of 221.37 acres (over 90 hectares or 10.7 lakh square km) in Sector 25, Dwarka, at an estimated cost of Rs.25,703 crores. It is connected through Dwarka Expressway and Urban Extension Road II and is about 11 kms from the Delhi International Airport. The project was first mooted in 2010 but was stuck due to delay in transfer of land from DDA.
IICC at Dwarka will be an integrated complex with facilities like exhibition halls, convention centre, open exhibition spaces, mixed use commercial spaces like star hotels (5, 4 and 3 star), retail services and high-end offices. The convention centre can accommodate 11,000 persons, 5 exhibition halls, 1-kilometre long foyer, multi-purpose arena with retractable roof.
It will be developed in two phases. Phase-I and II will be completed by December 2019 and December 2024, respectively. Officials associated with the project said the first phase, comprising convention centre with a seating capacity of 10,000 guests, two exhibition halls spread over 80,000 square metre area and a foyer, would be ready by October 2019 and will be constructed as non-public-private partnership (PPP) component. The second phase, comprising the remaining exhibition area will be ready by 2025 and facilities such as hotels, retail space and offices will be completed on a public-private partnership (PPP) mode, it said.
The driving factor behind the project is also to promote schemes like Make in India, tourism, trade and commerce, exports, business tourism etc. According to estimations, the government expects IICC Dwarka will generate an annual demand for at least 100 large international and domestic events. It expects to receive around 10 million annual visitors by 2019-20 and 23 million after the second phase in 2025.
According to officials, the country boasts of a few big convention centres such as the one in Pragati Maidan and the Bombay Convention and Exhibition Centre, but a world-class centre is lacking. The IICC Dwarka will be looking to fill in this space.
The construction will be in line with green building principles and Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) Platinum rating standards.
IICC complex will have a dedicated underground Metro station which will be an extension of the airport high speed metro corridor and is being constructed by Delhi Metro.
The Airport Express line of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is being considered for extension from Dwarka Sector 21 to the ECC complex. It is proposed that the complex will have a dedicated station along with three entry/exit points within the complex and the line’s construction could be completed by as soon as December 2019.
