The state-of-the art Convention Centre in lutyens’ Delhi is turning out to be a burden for the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC). Owing to this, the civic agency has now decided to hand over operations and maintenance of the Convention Centre located adjacent to its headquarters, Palika Kendra in Connaught Place, to a concessionaire on public-private partnership model.
The Convention Centre was inaugurated by then Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on December 13, 2010. The civic agency had been indecisive since its inauguration on its operations and maintenance.
“The plan has been on the backburner for long and now it is back on track. We have been incurring a loss because the centre remains grossly unused,” said NDMC Chairman Jalaj Shrivastava. With the PPP model, the council expects to generate sound revenue as the concessionaire would ensure pulling in more events. For this, the agency has kept advertising capability of the company as the top-most priority for being selected.
According to sources, the centre currently hosts around 20 events a year. With a private company operating it, the agency hopes the number would surge to hundreds keeping it engaged almost throughout the year. The convention centre has an auditorium with capacity of 300 people, besides conference rooms that can seat 12-42 people. The NDMC is charging Rs76,798 for auditorium per day (between 9 am and 9 pm), Rs16,483 for each of the two 42-seater conference halls and Rs8,000 for each of the four 12-seater conference halls. Though the cost includes electricity charges, service taxes will be added separately.
The civic body floated the proposal on April 25 in which it has restricted the usage of the Convention Centre only for meetings, seminars and conferences organised by schools, companies and various corporate houses.
“The selected private player shall be responsible for operation and maintenance of the Convention Centre as per provisions of the Concession Agreement (CA) and Standard Industry Practices. The Concession Period would be seven years. The bidder should have a minimum net worth of Rs3 crore, an average turnover of Rs4 crore over the last 3 financial years, and positive cash flows during each of the three financial years,” said an official.