Kamal Ghorui
KOLKATA: Suvendu Adhikari, the first chief minister of a BJP govt in Bengal, may soon change his Kolkata address from his Chinar Park flat to the Soujanya complex in Alipore.Sources indicated on Sunday that the electrical wing of state Public Works Department (PWD) is actively considering if Soujanya can be used as the temporary residence of CM Adhikari along with his office. Besides PWD officials who inspected the building, senior officers of Kolkata Police, led by joint CP Rupesh Kumar, too visited the building on Sunday. Sources indicated that cops, along with the directorate of security, are studying the security angle of the building that was built precisely to house chief ministers and other VVIPs.
The final decision on this shift, though, is still awaited, insisted senior state officials and top police sources. Adhikari’s office has not commented officially.Built at a cost exceeding Rs 180 crore during the previous Trinamool Congress govt, the palatial structure, inaugurated in 2018 by ex-CM Mamata Banerjee, has been lying mostly unused since completion.Adhikari’s ancestral home, Shantikunj in Contai in East Midnapore, where his parents and family reside, has seen Adhikari insisting on not having any barriers so that commoners are not inconvenienced. Even though security at his Chinar Park flat saw upgrade, security requirements might lead him to search for a more centralised address.Soujanya, located on Judges Court Road near Hastings House, spans 1 lakh sq ft with a grand G+2 architecture featuring a central dome topped by a globe that the then govt claimed symbolised “Biswa Bangla”. It is located within the Bhowanipore constituency that Adhikari won by defeating Banerjee.Incidentally, it is located less than 2 km from Banerjee’s Kalighat residence, and if indeed Adhikari decides to shift, it will symbolise that the power centre of the state remains in Bhowanipore. The chief secretary and the DGP’s residence are barely within a 1 km radius of Soujanya.Conceived in 2014 as a VVIP convention centre akin to Delhi’s Hyderabad House, it was designed for high-level meetings, including with foreign dignitaries. The ground floor houses a banquet hall and media centre for press conferences, while an underground parking lot accommodates up to 40 cars.
