madurai the shopping complex being built at the periyar bus stand as part of its redevelopment plan under smart cities mission is expected to be ready in the next two months with as much as 95 of the work complete according to city corporation officials the revamped periyar bus stand was opened to the public in 2022 after much delay but the shopping complex could not be completed then two week ago the assembly pledge committee led by panruti mla t velmurugan inspected the project and expressed dissatisfaction over its status and suggested a few changes to the corporationit was in this context that mayor indrani ponvasanath and corporation commissioner k j praveen kumar inspected the shopping complex work on tuesday and assured traders that works will be speeded up the corporation has recruited a private agency to study how to maximise revenue from the shopping complex and set the rent for the shops the total cost of the project under the smart city mission was 17456 crore out of which 50 crore was allocated for the bus stand which was inaugurated in december 2021 the threestorey complex comprises two underground levels basement 1 for shops and basement 2 for twowheeler parking a total of 475 shops are planned to be rented on the three floors and basement 1 the evacuated shopkeepers in the bus stand will be given first priority said a senior corporation official as many as 125 shopkeepers have registered themselves to get a shop in the complex the complex is planned to be equipped with centralised airconditioning the corporation recently fitted airconditioning systems inside the complex and is awaiting a high tension line from tangedco to give power supply the underground car parking connected with the shopping complex basement 1 is also awaiting inauguration along with the complex the facility will be beneficial to devotees coming to meenakshi sundareswarar temple who will have a hasslefree parking experience in addition to the multilevel parking near the temple r v rajaram president of periyar bus stand traders association said the project which was promised to be completed in 18 months has been delayed by more than a year we petitioned many commissioners to speed up the process hope it gets completed within the next two months