Bhopal Municipal Corporation Adds Auditorium To New Headquarters, No Council Hall Planned

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The newly inaugurated headquarters of the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC), Atal Bhawan, is set to get a new auditorium to host large-scale official meetings and departmental reviews, but there are still no future plans to build a new council meeting hall.

BMC work on the facility has begun on the third and fourth floors of the eight-storey building, with Commissioner Sanskriti Jain recently inspecting the site and issuing directions to officials.

The auditorium, being developed under the Commissioner’s supervision, will have a seating capacity of around 125 people and is expected to accommodate meetings involving the corporation’s 21 zones and 85 wards.

Health, revenue and other departmental review meetings will now be conducted at the new venue.

Located in Tulsi Nagar on Link Road No. 2, the high-tech Atal Bhawan was inaugurated by Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on May 7. Built across nearly 2.15 lakh square feet, the project cost rose to Rs 73 crore from the initially estimated Rs 42 crore.

The building was designed on a green concept and uses fly ash bricks and manufactured sand (M-sand) to help maintain indoor temperatures.

A geothermal cooling system is also being installed. While the original design did not include an auditorium, the addition comes amid growing administrative requirements at the corporation’s new central office.

Council meetings at old ISBT office

BMC Executive Engineer Pramod Malviya confirmed that there are no future plans to build a new council meeting hall, but said the auditorium will be completed within a month and may meet most major requirements.

Malviya said all council meetings will continue to be held at the old ISBT headquarters.