Reincarnation: RCB plans new cinema at Odeon site
Sources say three firms have already filed expression of interest
The culture of extending tax breaks needed to stop in order to generate funds to finance different ongoing infrastructure projects. photo: file
RAWALPINDI:
The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) has decided to build a new cinema in place of the old Odeon Cinema – the first film theatre in the garrison city.
Sources told Daily Express, three firms have sent expression of interest to RCB for design and feasibility reports. Earlier, RCB had decided to build a shopping mall, but the plan failed due to land utilisation clauses as the cinema belongs to a trust meant purely for entertainment and instruction, they said.
Sources said Kirpal Singh Rai Bahadar and Sujan Singh Rai Bhadar founded the Lansdowne Trust in Rawalpindi Cantonment in 1891 to offer more avenues of entertainment to citizens. Lansdowne comprised a cinema building, known as Odeon Cinema, a cantonment office with ancillary apartments, a public library, and Shah Baloot Park.
The cinema was shut six years ago due to its dilapidated structure and decreasing profitability. After various proposals for alternative use for the prime real estate ran into legal snags, cantt authorities finally agreed on building a modern cinema or multiplex, which would be in line with the trust’s purpose.
It would be the first multiplex in the Cantonment limits, officials said.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 23rd, 2017.
The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) has decided to build a new cinema in place of the old Odeon Cinema – the first film theatre in the garrison city.
Sources told Daily Express, three firms have sent expression of interest to RCB for design and feasibility reports. Earlier, RCB had decided to build a shopping mall, but the plan failed due to land utilisation clauses as the cinema belongs to a trust meant purely for entertainment and instruction, they said.
Sources said Kirpal Singh Rai Bahadar and Sujan Singh Rai Bhadar founded the Lansdowne Trust in Rawalpindi Cantonment in 1891 to offer more avenues of entertainment to citizens. Lansdowne comprised a cinema building, known as Odeon Cinema, a cantonment office with ancillary apartments, a public library, and Shah Baloot Park.
The cinema was shut six years ago due to its dilapidated structure and decreasing profitability. After various proposals for alternative use for the prime real estate ran into legal snags, cantt authorities finally agreed on building a modern cinema or multiplex, which would be in line with the trust’s purpose.
It would be the first multiplex in the Cantonment limits, officials said.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 23rd, 2017.