The premises of the Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao Music and Dance College in Vijayawada. | Photo Credit: CH_VIJAYA BHASKAR more-in The Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao Government College of Music and Dance at Durgapuram is finally set for a much-needed facelift. Located in the heart of the city, the music college has been a hub of cultural activities in Vijayawada. Artists of great repute have performed here but the college lacks good infrastructure facilities, a bane for people visiting the place for performance. The good news is that the Tourism and Culture Department is taking up a project aimed at grooming the college into an international venue. As part of the project estimated to cost ?10 crore, the structure, spread in four acres, would be equipped with the state-of-the-art facilities. The plan envisages construction of buildings in one acre while the remaining three would have an auditorium with a capacity to accommodate 1,000 people. Security features like closed circuit cameras and fire extinguishing equipment were also planned. Being an open-air one, the present auditorium causes inconvenience to residents living in the vicinity. Many of them lodged a complaint with the police saying the programmes caused disturbance to them. Organising programmes during day time and rainy season were also problematic. According to the new design, adjacent to the main auditorium will be two mini auditoria with a capacity to accommodate 100 and 200 people each. The premises will include parking space for 300 cars, green rooms for artists, meeting halls, a modern office room, canteen and a separate guest room for VIP stay. The Tourism and Culture department officials had submitted 10 designs for the project. The objective is to make the new facility available even to the common man, said officials of the tourism and culture wings.

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