nagpur in a development which could be heartening to cultural aficionados of the city a spot has been identified at sadar adjacent to the compound wall of raj bhavan for the purpose of constructing an auditorium the project was previously with pwd and has now been given to nit sunil gujjalwar superintendent engineer of nit said adding that except for the location nothing else had been finalized the vasantrao naik auditorium will come up near raj bhavan and we are waiting for the full project details and funds to reach us the demand for selecting location for a new stateoftheart auditorium has been pending since long the previous government had put pressure on pwd to look for a suitable space there was a proposal to make an auditorium behind deshpande hall by removing additional structures there says vl moroney sectional engineer for deshpande hall but now a car park has come up there moroney adds former minister of state for finance rajendra mulak had pushed for a 2000capacity auditorium and had done a lot of correspondence for the purpose but no plan could be made as the land could not be identified the then chief minister prithviraj chavan too had asked the department to identify a spot within six months before the elections he was in a big hurry to finalize it and the land of old gramin vikas office was also considered this could not be done as related land records could not be located moroney said mulak says he had released an amount of rs 20 crore in the march budget for this purpose i wanted an international standard auditorium to come up in the heart of the city and had done a lot of study to plan a structure which would have double storey auditorium mini amphitheatres and a residential facility says mulak such a structure would cost around rs 75 crore and would take 3 to 4 years to complete so i sanctioned an initial amount with the thought that if funds are there the project would get a push stressing upon the need to provide auditoriums of all sizes avantika chitnavis who manages the muchsought cultural venue chitnavis centre says i never expected that theatre or musical events will be held at our centre it just shows the urgency of having a suitable venue which is centrally located people also enjoy the serene ambience of the place she says and adds that more than constructing an auditorium the administration will have to ensure that it remains available too only when the fear of having a programme cancelled due to an official function is removed will these government auditoriums be of some use to the city