: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will open a newly constructed building to house the District Planning Committee (DPC) secretariat in the Civil Station compound here on May 15.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, district panchayat president K.A. Sarala and District Collector P. Bala Kiran said the Rs. 6-crore multi-storeyed building had been constructed on 17-cent land on the Civil Station premises. It will bring the District Planning Office, District Town Planning Office and the District Economics and Statistics Office in one building complex as proposed by the State government in 2006 for all districts for the district-level empowerment of planning process.
While the State government had offered a special grant of Rs.3.99 crore in three instalments for the construction, the remaining Rs.2.01 crore was pooled in by local bodies in the district, they said. Thirty-one grama panchayats had contributed Rs.1 lakh each, nine block panchayats Rs. 5 lakh each and six municipalities Rs. 10 lakh each. The district panchayat invested Rs. 25 lakh, they said.
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The construction works were begun by the Nirmithi Kendra on April 30, 2013 and were completed in two years, ahead of the scheduled deadline, Prof. Sarala said. The six-storey building has total 2639 sq. metre area. While the ground floor was earmarked for parking, generator room and record room, the District Planning Committee (DPC) Office, District Town Planning Office and the District Economic and Statistics Office would be housed on the first, second and third floors respectively. The fourth floor would house a mini-conference hall, a library and the office of the secretariat, while the fifth floor would have the DPC conference hall.
Ministers K.C. Joseph and K.P. Mohanan would also be present.