Its gruhapravesh will be held at the hall on that day and it will be formally inaugurated by President K R Narayanan in the last week of November or early December.

The hall was near devastated when a massive fire broke out on February 28. The stage's silk curtain caught fire when a candle accidentally fell on it during a candle dance performance by school students. The hall's air-conditioning and seating were devastated in the fire, but the building, as a whole, suffered no structural damages.

"In fact the hall's first and second floor balconies were certified to be sound by the Regional Institute of Technology, Nagpur, and VJTI, Mumbai", N Parameswaran, Honorary Secretary, told Express Newsline.

The reconstruction of the hall, which hascost the Shanmukhananda Fine Arts and Sangeetha Sabha Rs 12 crore, was planned and implemented by reputed architect I M Kadri.

``The cost of reconstruction largely came through donations from various public and private bodies, the central and state governments, banking institutions and philanthropists,'' said the Sabha president Dr V Subramaniam.

The state and central governments donated Rs 50 lakh each, other state governments donated Rs 10 lakh and the Sabha took a loan of Rs 2.5 crore, informed Subramaniam. The Sabha is still short of Rs 1.5 crore, which it hopes it will get by way by way of donations and income through performances. It is also banking on the central government's new scheme for cultural events and the chief minister's promise of Rs 25 lakh for the institution.

The hall was set up in 1963 to promote national integration through the performing arts and through academic, religious and social discourses. Post-renovation, the hall has a seating capacity of 2,900. The Sabha also has plansto start an art gallery as well as donate some space on the building's second floor to workshops.

Post-renovation, the hall has now installed smoke detectors, sprinklers and dampers in the AC ducts. The height of the passage around the main auditorium has been raised by 1.5 feet, and a wall enclosing the auditorium has been built to prevent water seepage. ACs of 300 tonnes will cool the auditorium, foyers, canteen, artists' rooms and the first and second floors. American-made JBL-Harmone group amplifiers, speakers and mixers have been bought. ``The stage has been made wider and deeper and has been fitted with a workshop inside to store equipment,'' informed Subramaniam.

The hall has already been booked till March 1999. On Sunday itself, playback singer Chitra will perform on the occasion of Kerala Piravi Dinam at a show organised by the People's Art Centre at 7 pm.

Several award winners in sports, literature and Malayalam cinema, including P T Usha, Balachandra Menon, Jayaraj, Suresh Gopi, Biju Menon,Kaithapram Damodaran Namboodiri, Manju Warrier, K Radhakrishnan Lal and E Rajendran, will also be felicitated by Governor Dr P C Alexandar.

And between November six and eight, the state government will hold its World Agro Advantage Conference.