Venue for ADB board meet: Greater Noida scores over Delhi

About seven years ago, India had hosted the 39th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Hyderabad. The feedback the government had received then was that there were not enough Mercedes cars to be hired in the city for use by the 65 finance ministers who came to attend the event.

Eventually, Mercedes cars had to be brought for the delegates from Bangalore, recalls an official involved in organising ADB's annual jamboree in 2006.

That problem is unlikely to recur now, as India hosts the 46th annual meeting of ADB's board of governors from Thursday - at the India Expo Centre and Mart (IECM), Greater Noida, about 40 km from the capital, New Delhi. The four-day event will conclude on Sunday at the sprawling IECM complex, where wi-fi internet connection has been enabled for the occasion.

"Hopefully, we won't face the problem of procuring Mercedes this time, as the event is being held in the National Capital Region and the number and variety of luxury cars in India have gone up significantly over the past seven years," an official said.

Besides, space, too, would not be an issue, as the IECM complex, with eight exhibition halls and 1,800 marts, is spread across 235,000 square metres. The complex has parking space for 8,000 cars and 200 commercial vehicles. That should be enough for the 6,000 delegates expected to be at the four-day event, says an official. Of them, around 4,500 delegates from different foreign countries have already registered for the annual meeting.

That, perhaps, also explains why a venue like the Ashok Hotel (which had hosted ADB's 23rd annual meeting, the first to be organised by India since its inception in 1966), or the Vigyan Bhavan complex was not considered for the ADB event this year. An ADB official said the decision on choosing the IECM complex in Greater Noida was made entirely by the finance ministry. A financial ministry official confirmed: "These places (Ashok Hotel or Vigyan Bhavan) couldn't have been the venue this time. The sheer number of delegates is too large."

The choice of the venue perhaps also reflects the new economic thinking of the United Progressive Alliance government. The IECM complex has been built on a public-private-partnership (PPP) model by the Union textiles ministry, Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority and a clutch of private-sector handicraft exporters. "Nowhere in Delhi would you get this kind of space. There will be parallel seminars and we need many large halls for that," another official associated with hosting the event said.

Sudeep Sarcar, general manager of the Expo Mart, explains that the facilities of several major hotels such as Raddison Blu, Jaypee Spa & Resort, Crown Plaza, Savoy Suites nearby make the location even more attractive. Even the long distance that a delegate would have to cover from the New Delhi airport to the IECM complex was not a deterring factor. While India's representative in ADB, Ashok Lahiri, dismissed such concerns, a foreign delegate told Business Standard it took him just 45 minutes to reach the Expo Mart from the airport.

The security at the venue is being provided by the Uttar Pradesh Police and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). Earlier this month, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, the chair of the Board of Governors this time, personally inspected the arrangements being made for the ADB meeting. Most of his officials from the Department of Economic Affairs have been stationed at the Mart for the past few days.

Newly elected ADB President Takehiko Nakao also inspected the facility today and is reported to have found it in order. While ADB has roped in students from Amity University and Galgotias University to help the delegates and even escort them when needed, the finance ministry has asked some public sector banks employees to provide such assistance to the dignitaries. For medical emergencies, as many as four hospitals - Kailash, Sharda, Fortis and Metro - have been directed to reserve 10 beds and one ICU unit each. And, for providing toll-free movement, delegates and other dignitaries would be given stickers to be displayed on their vehicles and one lane will be reserved for such visitors.

Noida Power Company Ltd, the power distribution agency at Greater Noida, has been directed to make arrangements for providing uninterrupted power supply during the event.

In short, the Union finance ministry is doing everything to prevent the recurrence of a Mercedes-type problem that had surfaced in Hyderabad in 2006. One question, though, remains. The choice of Hyderabad then was dictated by the recognition of the city's emergence as India's new information technology hub. Organisers of the ADB event this time are not yet sure what could have dictated the choice of Greater Noida as the venue of the 46th annual meeting.