Chaplin will be pulled down to build an office complex

Long driven out of business by the plexes, Chaplin cinema will cease to exist even as a heritage structure in a few months.

The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) will start pulling down the building before Puja as part of its plan to replace it with an office complex that would be an extension of its headquarters. A multiplex and a mall were to come up at the site but the project has been shelved.

“We had planned a multiplex and a mall as a joint venture with private parties but decided to build an annexe instead, because the CMC needs more office space. The planned office building will house a conference room of international standard, a central server room and a video conferencing hall, among other things,” said joint municipal commissioner Sahidul Islam.

Chaplin, known as Minerva till the early 1980s and set up by the pioneering theatre and film producer and exhibitor Jamshedji Framji Madan, had been leased out to the West Bengal Film Corporation in 1990 for an annual rent of Rs 87,400. The lease ended in 2005.

Municipal commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay said the CMC was in consultation with architects to make the best use of the space that would be available after pulling down Chaplin. “We have decided to invite bids for the task of demolishing the building immediately.”

Islam, who is in charge of the Chaplin project, said the only hitch was a dispute over the size of the planned building. Some architects have advised maximum utilisation of the available ground space and a building not taller than the civic headquarters, but the town planning department is in favour of more open space on the ground and a taller structure.

“The opportunity to create space in a congested area like New Market comes rarely. Pulling down Chaplin is an opportunity for us to create more parking space and a better traffic circulation system in the entire area. Using up the entire space for a concrete structure will kill this opportunity,” said chief town planner Dipankar Sinha.

The CMC will have to build a 10-storey structure if it chooses to reserve more ground space for parking and better traffic circulation in and around Corporation Place and New Market. That will also mean leaving three times more open space than is mandatory for a building of the size of the CMC headquarters.

“We have yet to decide the height of the proposed building. I will convene a meeting of the architects, heritage experts, traffic planners and town planners before finalising how tall the building should be,” said Bandyopadhyay.