Amritsar's own exhibition centre remains a distant dream

Although successive heads of the state government and their leaders have repeatedly been declaring to establish a world-class exhibition centre to showcase indigenously manufactured articles, besides creations from across the country and abroad in the holy city for the past over 15 years, no progress in this connection has been made so far.

All these years, Amritsar Improvement Trust’s chunk of nearly five acres land in Ranjit Avenue has been serving as a venue to host exhibitions and other cultural programmes. Organisers pay the rent along with the GST to the Trust to hold programmes.

This arrangement is not likely to continue for a long run as sources in the Trust shared that the Local Bodies Department was planning to auction this prime commercial land. They stated that in most probability SCOs and other commercial projects would be set up at the site to draw maximum profit out of the land.

The site was most sought after by organisers for its ideal location in the city, ample parking space, planned area clearly demarcating residential and commercial spaces and enough wide roads. All these factors facilitate hassle free movement of masses and vehicles.

This time, the Amritsar improvement Trust escalated the fee for the venue of the five-day Punjab International Trade Expo (PITEX) from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. PHDCCI would host the event for the 19th year this time, which would commence from December 4 in an area spread over five acres in Ranjit Avenue.

Notably, all previous efforts to establish an exhibition centre in the city have come to a naught. The state budget had made a provision of Rs 80 crore for the construction of Unity Mall in the city during the last year with the financial support of the Centre. The Unity Mall was to have stalls representing all states and UTs, where artisans from across the country could showcase their products. It was to come up on 10 acres of land, which was earlier earmarked for a multipurpose sports stadium in the Ranjit Avenue area.

The Punjab Public Works Department (PWD) had even floated a tender for the construction of the mall, with an estimated cost of Rs 153.2 crore and a completion period of 24 months. The mall would have promoted Punjab’s handicraft products in a modern environment, catering to tourists visiting Amritsar every day. The project was later shelved by the Trust.

Around 15 years ago during the SAD-BJP regime, a state-of-the-art building was to be raised to set up a convention centre inside Old Jail. The state government had then made a budgetary announcement to establish the trade centre in Amritsar.