Once operational, the new India International Convention & Expo Centre (IICC) in Dwarka, Delhi. is expected to host more than 100 National and International events annually. This was disclosed by Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyal during his visit to IICC on 20th April 2022 to review the progress of the project. The Minister asked the officials to expedite the works for completion of the Phase-1 of the project in a time-bound manner.
The IICC is a flagship project of the Government of India and is being developed to create a state-of-the-art and world-class Exhibition and Convention Centre to promote Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) activities in India. The Foundation Stone for the project was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 20, 2018.
While addressing the media, the Minster said that the IICC will serve as a major economic driver helping India capture a larger share of global meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions market. IICC will help increase India’s share of hosting major international events to around 13% by 2024 and bring New Delhi into the league of Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore in the sphere of the exhibition market, he said.
The project is planned over an area of 89.72 Hectare in Sector 25 Dwarka, New Delhi with a total FAR of 10.70 lakh sq.m (sqm) comprising of Convention Centre (to accommodate 11,000 persons), 5 Exhibition Halls, one kilometre-long Foyer, Multi-purpose Arena with a retractable roof (to accommodate 20,000 persons), 3/4/5 Star Hotels, Office space and Commercial/Retail space.
The project is being developed in two Phases. Phase-I is being developed with a Convention Centre (60,000 sqm) and Two Exhibition Halls (61,000 sqm) with adjoining foyers and entire the trunk infrastructure of the project. Phase-II is planned to be developed with the construction of 3 more Exhibition Halls, an Arena, and Hotel, Retail and Office space and will be taken after completion of Phase-I.
A dedicated underground Metro station, which is an extension of the Airport Express Metro, is being constructed by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and funded by IICC Ltd. The project site also boasts of excellent road connectivity with dedicated interchanges along the Dwarka Expressway and Urban Extension Road-II, an extended ring road within Delhi.
Kinexin Convention Management Pvt Ltd., a consortium of Korea International Exhibition Centre (KINTEX) and eSang Networks Company Limited, has been appointed as the Operator of the Exhibition and Convention Centre for operating and managing the venue for 20 years for post-Commercial Operations Date (COD). The operator has been providing inputs as per the Good Industry Practices while reviewing the existing facilities being constructed in the IICC project at present and suggested various improvements based on the general practice adopted for convention & exhibition centres worldwide.
During the visit, Goyal asked DMRC and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officials to expand the external connectivity works and to complete the same in a time-bound manner.
Reportedly, within Asia, China accounted for more than 68% (4.1 million sqm) of total available space for exhibition facilities. India currently has only 0.3 million sqm of exhibition space which accounts for 4.9% of the share of Asia. In terms of events hosted across Asian markets, Chinese venues took lead by hosting more than 515 (28%) events in Asia annually, as compared to Indian venues hosting 131 events (7.1%). In the absence of high-end world-class exhibition and conference facilities, India has not benefited from the potential opportunities of this development.
