Ekamra Tower to come up in Bhubaneswar

A state of art multistoried general purpose iconic tower is coming up soon in heart of the city of Bhubaneswar as a joint venture between Odisha Khadi & Village Industries Board and IDCO. The project approved by Government earlier with estimated cost involvement of Rs 169.54 cr, has been given a boost with Chief Secretary Sri Jugal Kishore Mohapatra taking a review of its progress in a high level meeting held in secretariat conference hall today.

Reviewing the progress made so far Chief Secretary has directed to complete the bidding and contract award process by January, 2014. Sri Mohapatra has also directed to IDCO to make appropriate planning and arrangements for safety, security and maintenance of the building.

It has been proposed the name the building as Ekamra Tower as it will be a world class structure of its style in Bhubaneswar known as Ekamra Kshetra. Discussions in the meeting that the proposed building will be constructed in Khadi Board premises near Hotel Marion on Janapath.

As per earlier decisions of the Government, Expression of Interest (EOI) was invited for selection of Architect/Consultant for the building; and, in the process M/S ABIN Design, Kolkata was selected for as the consultant. The concept plan has also been approved by Government. Total construction area of the building is worked out to be 6,62,000 Sqft.

In the meanwhile, short listing of firms for execution of the work has been taken up. So far 5 offers have been received from the farms of national and international repute. Scrutiny of the papers have been taken up for short listing of the firms. Chief Secretary has directed to expedite the process and complete the award of contract by January, 2014.

It has been targeted to complete the project by March,2017. The Estimated cost for construction is around Rs. 1,69.54 cr and Land Cost is around Rs. 5.69 cr. The proposed building will have single basement +ground floor +23 floors with helipad on the top. It will provide for office space shopping malls, interactive sessions, art shows etc.

Chief Secretary has advised the Special Secretary GA to workout the terms and conditions of the built up space transaction and maintenance of the building in consultation with Khadi Borad and IDCO. Development Commissioner Sri Injeti Srinivas, Additional Chief Secretary Finance Sri U.N.Behera, CMD IDCO Sri Vishal Dev, Special Secretary GA Sri Niten Chandra along with other senior officers from Khadi Board, IDCO and Industry Department participated in discussion.