The much-awaited plan to transform the posh BMC-Bhawani Mall in Sahid Nagar to a happening corporate hub, is gradually gaining ground, with many leading corporate houses and organisations evincing their interests in having their office spaces there.

Already the Bhubaneswar Smart City limited (BSCl), an SPV for the proposed child-friendly Smart City, the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), the Agarwal Eye Hospital, the Higher Matrix Consultants, the Osanika Infrastructure and many front line business organisations have made their presence at the centrally located prime locality.

While the lIC India, the ACC Cements and the Sanket Communications have planned to make entry into the premises, which is becoming famous for quality office space and commercial and housing sites. 

On Tuesday, Vivo Phones signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the BMC as it took 13,183 square feet office space on rent from the civic body and will pay ` 3.90 lakh rent to BMC per month. BMC Additional Commissioner Alok Kumar Kar said barring the fifth floor of the BMC-Bhawani Mall, the residential-cum-commercial space would rent 57,000 square feet space to different corporate and organisations including 3,000 square feet space of prime shopping location.

It can be mentioned here that the civic body has 72,000 square feet office space and 3,000 square feet shopping space (2,000 and 1,000 square feet for two shops) in BMC-Bhawani Mall. However, whereas all the corporate are on rent, lIC India is likely to purchase around 8,000 square feet to make their regional office there. leading communication planning and strategy designing firm from the Temple City, Sanket Communications and ACC are also keen to shift to BMC-Bhawani Mall as it is going to be the next happening corporate address in the city in near future.

Floor-wise, while the ONGC, the BSCl and the Agarwal Eye Hospital are in the second floor, in third floor Matrix Consultants and Osanika Infrastructure have come up. lIC India and Sanket Communications are likely to add their presence there. In fourth floor, the ACC and the Vivo are going to set up their premises and the fourth floor is still having 18,000 square feet of space left for new entrants or any expansion plan for the existing organisations. It can be mentioned here that while Panchdeep in Unit IV is the first PPP project of BMC, the Sahid Nagar project, starting much later has progressed swiftly.

“We are also trying to address allotment and other space-sharing issues with BMC-Keshari Mall in Unit II soon so that the civic body would get more revenue from its properties,’’  Kar added.