Firhad Hakim to inaugurate Mishti Hub on July 5

Kolkata: State Urban Development minister Firhad Hakim will inaugurate the Mishti Hub in New Town on July 5.

The hub, which will give buyers an opportunity to have sweets made by branded manufacturers under one roof, is the only of its kind in Bengal.

A high level meeting between the sweet manufacturers and senior officials of Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO), was held on Thursday to fix the integrities.

The meeting was chaired by Debashis Sen, chairman of HIDCO. It has been decided that the Mishti Hub will remain open from 12 noon to 9 pm. It is coming up next to Eco Park. The hub will give an opportunity to tourists who want to carry the famous mouth watering sweets back home.

Proper signs will be put up on Biswa Bangla Sarani, to facilitate the airport bound buyers. There will be a car parking facility for the buyers as well. The residents of New Town will get an opportunity to get the best of sweets at their doorsteps. Special steps will be taken by the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) to issue trade licence to the owners of shops at the Mishti Hub on Monday and Tuesday.

The 10 branded shops that will be set up at the Mishti Hub are in the following order: KC Das (shop no. 1), Bancharam (shop no. 2), Gupta Brothers (shop no. 3), Balaram Mullick and Radharaman Mullick (shop no. 4), Ganguram Sweets (shop no. 5), Nalin Chandra Das (shop no. 6), Mithai (shop no. 7), Sweet Bengal (shop no. 8), New Nabakrishna Guin (shop no. 9) and Hindusthan Sweets (shop no. 10).

HIDCO had imposed a condition that those opening shops at the hub must have experience of 25 years or

more.

A central atrium with glass walls will bring the sunlight inside. There is a driveway and a free parking lot for a limited period of 30 minutes. The construction of the hub has been done as a combination of tradition and modernity.

There will be a caretaker on behalf of HIDCO, to look after the facilities. The hub has been built on a shop-in-shop concept. There is a potential market of Bengali sweets both in the country and abroad.