3 more may follow Ranga Shankara example

3 more may follow Ranga Shankara example
Deccan Herald

If the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) has its way, it will keep the public-private partnership idea on hold and hand over at least three of its auditoria to the Kannada and Culture department.

If the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) has its way, it will keep the public-private partnership idea on hold and hand over at least three of its auditoria to the Kannada and Culture department. The auditoria to be handed over are the newly-built Rajkumar Kalabhavan in Rajajinagar, the Cultural Centre at Ramanjaneya Gudda, Hanumanthanagar and the recently-renovated Gubbi Veeranna Ranga Mandira on K G Road. “The three projects cost the BMP about Rs 7 crore and we are planning to hand them over to the Kannada and Culture department for maintenance and management. This will also do away with the tender process and prevent the entry of private parties. The idea is to make the auditoria affordable to the common man, thus promoting art and culture,” said BMP Commissioner K Jairaj. “The centres will be repositories of our culture, on the lines of Ranga Shankara,” he added. It took more than a decade for the Rajkumar Kalabhavan to materialise. “The first programme is slated for November 14,” says MLA Narendra Babu, the man instrumental in making the project a reality. The auditorium was built at a cost of Rs 3.5 crore.

He plans to launch his constituency’s website and a ‘complaints-on-email’ facility at the auditorium. Meanwhile, the cultural centre at Ramanjaneya Gudda (Hanumanthanagar), has been built at a cost of Rs 3.3 crore and has an art gallery with 330 seats. “The auditorium is in the final stage of construction. We are working out the final modalities of its maintenance and management,” said MLA Mr K Chandrashekhar, who has been pursuing the project right from the conception stage.

The Gubbi Veeranna auditorium will be ready by the second week of November, say BMP officials. “This 12-year-old auditorium with 750 seats, had major repair works to be carried out. We have refurbished it at a cost of Rs 20 lakh and replaced the damaged portions and the sanitation facility, besides setting up three ticket counters,” they add.