vadodara theatre lovers in vadodara have a rare treat coming their way instead of having to experience plays in the rundown gandhinagar gruh they will soon have a stateoftheart theatre at atladra the vadodara municipal corporation vmc is all set to build a new town hall spread over 15000 square metreswith a capacity to accommodate an audience of 2000 the town hall will have a parking facility for around 700 cars the centre could well be compared to the india habitat centre of delhi which boasts of similar dimensions and standards the plan has been given the final statistical approval by the municipal corporation and would soon be sold to private developers on built operate and transfer bot basissenior officials in the town planning department say that the project costs almost rs 6 crore and around eight consultants have been roped in to work on various aspects of the town hallsince the centre would cater to theatre and music lovers alike a separate acoustical arrangement will be in place to look into the preferences of both these sectionssources say that a special team has been called in from mumbai to design a threedimensional sound system for the town hall apart from acoustics the town hall will also have a multimedia section large enough to organise a fullfledged film festivalprofessional artists generally prefer locations with a separate space for rehearsing besides the acoustical tastes of people involved in drama are different from those who sing or play instrumentsthe existing town hall lacks this facility says general secretary of indian musicological society ims r c mehta besides roping in a separate ergonomic consultant to take care of seating comfort there would be a team to take care of the structure and future development of the hall this includes a separate art exhibition centre facilities to conduct various workshops and discussions etcthe existing gandhinagar gruh town hall was built way back in 1956 for a city with a population of nearly 25 lakh however the city has grown since then and was in dire need of a facility that could cater to a population of 15 lakh says president of swarvilas v v modihe adds most music troupes who had visited here earlier had refused to perform in the hall for lack of acoustic facilities sitar maestro pandit ravishankar preferred the c c mehta auditorium over the town hallthe town hall will help the city retain its cultural flavour the plan is well in place and would soon be opened to private developers under the bot scheme there is a huge scope for revenue for the municipal corporation from commercial centres spread over 6000 square metres within the town hall premises says city mayor n v patel