Varanasi to soon have its own ‘twin towers’

Revised
Varanasi: The integrated commissioner complex (ICC) will come up in ‘twin towers’ at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency with an investment of Rs 171 crore on revenue model with the help of private investors. While one tower will accommodate only government offices, the other will be totally commercial and generate revenue for the maintenance of the former.
The complex will comprise two buildings.While a 17-storey complex will accommodate 44 government offices of commissioner headquarters, the other will solely be a commercial complex of 16-storey. These twin towers will come up on a 3-acre land available on the campus of the commissioner office without disturbing the existing structures.
Talking to TOI on Monday, divisional commissioner Deepak Agrawal said, “Following the state cabinet’s nod to set up ICCs in Gorakhpur and Varanasi as a pilot project, a government order was issued which was received here 10 days ago. After this, the basic exercise of site selection, tentative expenditure on constructing ICC building and arranging budget on revenue model instead of depending on the state government for funds, were conducted.”
“In the coming two-three days tenders will be floated for the appointment of a transactional advisor for this project on public-private partnership model and also an architect,” said Agrawal.
He added, “The three-acre vacant land available on the commissioner office compound has been identified for this project in which two towers of 17 and 16 storeys have been proposed with a huge parking facility. Tentative cost of the project has been estimated as of Rs 171 crore by the divisional level committee.”
Providing details of the basic idea for the proposed buildings, Varanasi Development Authority vice-chairman Rahul Pandey said, “One tower will comprise only government offices of ICC while the second tower will be totally commercial, which will generate revenue for the maintenance and recurring expenses on the building housing government offices.”
Agrawal said, “The 17-storey building will house state-of-the-art offices of 44 government departments at the commissionery level. Currently, offices of 12-13 department are running in their own buildings while others are being operated at rental accommodation where their maintenance is also very poor. Only the regional sports office will not come to ICC as RSO’s office can run in stadium.”
For better coordination between different government offices associated with the divisional commissioner and also to avoid inconvenience for people visiting from neighbouring districts of the division, the ICC was sanctioned for the PM’s parliamentary constituency and Gorakhpur, the home turf of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, in the pilot project.