The circuit house will come up on 13 cottah of the 48-cottah plot of Bedi Bhavan on Southern Avenue beside Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture. The remaining land will be utilised for a 19-storey residential complex.

The circuit house, covering a carpet area of 11,753 square feet, will have all three-star hotel facilities. The five-storey building will have four VIP suites, 18 double-bed rooms and a parking lot for 20 cars. "The project will cut down on the state government's hotel expenses," said Mollah.

The Fort Group will construct the circuit house within the next 18 months. It has bought the entire plot of land on lease, paying Rs 18 crore.

"We will pay more around Rs 9 to 10 crore to build the circuit house. The price for the residential complex is yet to be evaluated," said Varun Kathoria of the Fort Group.

The project was slated to be executed in the late '90s. But Opposition leader Mamata Banerjee raised questions over the transparency of the procedures followed to acquire the land. She staged a dharna and called for an all-Bengal strike on this issue on October 28, 1998.

Mayor Bikash Bhattacharya, who graced the occasion, said: "Without looking back to the past, we should concentrate on the future. This is a good project and I will request the concerned authority to maintain it properly."