Chennai Trade Centre

Location

The Chennai Trade Centre is located in Nandambakkam on the arterial Mount-Poonamallee Road. It lies in the northern fringe of the Chennai Airport at a distance of about 6 km from the airport and 1.5 km from the Kathipara Junction. The nearest railway station is St Thomas Mount Railway Station of the Chennai Suburban Railway Network.

Facilities

The Trade Centre is 6,714 m2 which includes a multi-purpose hall of 1,900 m2, a stage of 500 m2, a banquet hall of 750 m2, a lounge of 269 m2, and business and meeting rooms. The multi-purpose hall can accommodate 1,500 people. The open plaza at the entrance is about 800 m2 with a uniquely designed porch. There are also VIP lounges/rest rooms and green rooms for the stage performers.{{cite web | access-date = 15 Oct 2011}}

The special facilities available in the convention centre are sliding partition, infra-red digital interpretation systems, theatrical lighting system, fire protections with sprinklers and smoke detectors, modern audio and video system, meeting rooms, banquet hall, protocol and VIP lounge, business centre, information booth, parking facilities, multiple screen backdrops with cyclorama screen and multiple interpretation facility for 1+5 languages, video projector facility, integrated remote control for stage lightings, video and audio.

The Chennai Convention Centre, with 67,000 sq ft of air-conditioned space and 75,000 sq ft of lawns, provides conferencing and banqueting space ranging from 250 sq ft to 20,000 sq ft to accommodate 25 to 2,000 persons.

Other features of the Trade Centre include a couple of 1,000 kVA transformers with a couple of HT feeders and 100% stand-by generators, 200 lines with Department of Telecom (DoT) exchange for telephone facilities,{{cite news | access-date = 15 Oct 2011}} heavy-duty flooring with a bearing capacity of approximately 5 tonnes per square metre and a sewage treatment plant.

In 2009, 135 events were held at the venue and the three halls and convention centre were used for 279 days in the year.{{cite news | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100204182928/http://www.hindu.com/2010/02/01/stories/2010020165210400.htm | url-status = dead | archive-date = 4 February 2010 | access-date = 15 Oct 2011}} In 2010, 84 exhibitions and 107 conventions were held occupying 357 days as against a solitary show in 2001.{{cite news | access-date = 15 Oct 2011}}{{cite web | access-date = 15 Oct 2011}} As of 2020, the occupancy rate is 75 percent, which is the highest in the country.{{cite news | access-date = 4 September 2020

The annual international leather fair is a permanent fixture at the exhibition centre.

The performance of the exhibition centre is shown in the table below:

From the day of its inception till March 2005, the convention centre hosted 25 events with an occupancy days of 38 generating a revenue of 70.21 lakhs. During 2005–06, it hosted 80 events with 130 occupancy days generating a revenue of 2.3473 crore.

Expansion plans

ITPO has acquired an additional 10 acres of land from the Tamil Nadu government for the expansion of the Chennai Trade Centre. There are plans to add about 10,000 m2 with two more halls and to double the exhibition area at a cost of 1000 million.{{cite news | access-date = 29 Feb 2012}}

Former Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin launched the 2500 million expansion work of the Chennai Trade Centre on 26 February 2011. The expansion work will commence in July 2011 and will be completed in March 2013. It includes the construction of six air-conditioned exhibition halls, each on 66,000 sq ft, on each of the two floors, and a basement parking facility of 74,000 sq ft with a capacity to accommodate 2,000 cars and an equal number of two-wheelers.{{cite news | access-date = 15 Oct 2011}} Taamaesek Engineering Consortium have been appointed consultants for the expansion work.{{cite news | access-date = 15 Oct 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110714130040/http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4969648 | archive-date = 14 July 2011 | url-status = dead

As of 2020, the Tamil Nadu Trade Promotion Organisation (TNTPO) is in the process of doubling the centre's capacity at a cost of 2890 million to 40,000 sq m. An additional 9.5 acres of land will be added in the expansion. It will have a convention hall to seat 4,000 people and a multi-level car parking to accommodate 1,000 cars. The process is expected to be completed in 18 months.

References

References

1. "Bangalore to get Rs 100 crore expo centre | ITPO | | Indian Express". The New Indian Express.