Delhi's Pragati Maidan to be expanded with investment of Rs 2,000 cr

ITPO also planning new convention centre at Vigyan Bhavan with seating capacity of 4,000-8,000

The India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO), is planning to expand Pragati Maidan, one of the exhibition centers in new Delhi with an investment of around Rs 2,000 crore.

ITPO is also looking at setting up a new exhibition centre at Kochi.

Malay Shrivastava, executive director, ITPO said that the biggest and largest centre Pragati Maidan currently spread over in 123 acres with one lakh sq.mt. ITPO is planning to add another 40,000 sq.mt.

"This expansion would cost us around Rs 2,000 crore," said Shrivastava. He was speaking on the sidelines of 29th India International Leather Fair.

ITPO, a Government of India Enterprise, is the nodal trade promotion agency. For nearly three & half decades, it is managing India's world class exhibition complex that is constantly upgraded to keep it in a high standard of readiness.

Pragati Maidan is one of the key centres and known for some of the major exhibitions/ shows include Autoshow, book fair, defence shows, petrotech and others.

ITPO currently got corpus of around Rs 700-800 crore.

He noted, capacity utilisation of the exhibition area is currently at around 90 per cent during the peak season, which is between November and March, during semi-peak season (April-June) it is around 40 per cent.

Meanwhile ITPO is also planning to set up new convention centre at Vigyan Bhavan with a seating capacity of 4000-8000.

At Kochi, ITPO is planning to join hands with other associations and state government to set up a large convention centre.

"We are in talks with Coffee Board, Spice Boards and others to form the SPV," he said.