City to have state-of-the-art exhibition centre

City to have state-of-the-art exhibition centre
Vijay Times

Bangalore: Very soon, the City may have its own state-of the art, exhibition and conference facility of international standards, one similar to Pragati Maidan in the nation’s capital.

The Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC), being developed by the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers Association (IMTMA), is being promoted as a new destination for trade fairs in the country. It will be spread across 40 acres near the Peenya Industrial Township.

To be set up at a cost of Rs 120 crore on private-public partnership, the centre will comprise three large exhibition halls, a conference complex and a training centre. It will start operating from Jan 2007, when it hosts the IMTMAS highly acclaimed, international machine tool exhibition IMTEX-2007 and Tooltech-2007, said Jamshyd N Godrej, chairman BIEC.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, he said, "The country does not have a single, world-class venue to host exhibitions, product demonstrations and international summits. Most exhibitions are at makeshift venues without proper facilities." Godrej said the Association selected Bangalore, as 60 percent of the machine tool industry output is from here. "It is a key manufacturing centre with automobile, textile and earth-moving industries. Also, being the IT capital and a tech hub, it is the ideal choice," he said.

The exhibition facility at the centre will comprise three halls with 40,000 sq meters exhibition space. The conference complex will consist of four air-conditioned conference halls with over 5,600 sq meters built-up space, besides a training centre to house the IMTMA Design Institute. VTN