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New Delhi, May 11:If old is gold, the government is putting its money on the 180-year-old “silver mint”. Sixty years after it shut operations and was reduced to a storehouse, the famous Old Mint Complex on Strand Road, Kolkata, is set for a Rs 148-crore makeover.

The Finance Ministry has decided to convert one of the country’s oldest mints, spread over 12.1 acres in a prime Kolkata locality, into a museum-cum-convention and hotel centre.

Built in 1824 by the British, the mint complex, which resembles the Temple of Minerva in Athens, was closed down in 1947-48 and has since mostly been used to store old machinery as well as served as quarters for the CRPF.

Under the public-private partnership model approved for facelift of this “prime heritage structure”, the Centre will give a grant or viability gap funding amounting to 26 per cent of the project cost. In other words, the Union Finance Ministry will provide up to Rs 28 crore to make the package attractive for developers.

Apart from the land, an added attraction would be the structures on the premises of the OMC, built in “typical colonial architecture”. “The structures used to be administrative offices once. Today these structures are the offices of the CRPF and their quarters, and others are closed,” officials said.

Under the package, bids are going to be called from developers to house a mint museum, archival centre, as well as a four-star heritage hotel in the complex. The museum would showcase artefacts related to a mint’s functioning — including coins, machinery, notes etc. While the project developer would have the right to decide how to display these artifacts, their ownership would lie with the government.

With the idea behind the project being “rejuvenation along with generation of continuous revenue” to ensure maintenance and upkeep, developers would be allowed to also build a convention centre and a mini financial centre in the complex.

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