Five premier Central government organisations on Monday informed the state government they were ready to start construction work at the plots allotted to them at the proposed knowledge hub being set up at Baruipur in South 24 Parganas district.

Representatives from these institutes held a meeting at Writers’ Building that was attended by, among others, principal secretary to the chief minister Subesh Das, municipal affairs secretary Pawan Agarwal, Jadavpur MP Sujan Chakrabarty and other senior government officials.

The five organisations are: National Institute for Research in Mangrove and Coastal Bio-sphere, the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Institute of Nano-science and Technology, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research and Space Application Centre of Indian Space Research Organisation.

The hub is going to be set up on an area of 120 acres of land, which is part of 500 acres of land in which the new district headquarters of South 24 Parganas district will be set up.

Of the 500 acres, while the institutes will come occupy 120 acres, the district headquarters will come up on 143 acres. The WBIDC will keep 100 acres, while 35 acres of land has been earmarked for a district hospital. The rest of the land will remain with KMDA.

For the Mangrove centre, while 15 acres have been allotted, its field centre will be set up at Jharkhali in the Sunderban area on an area of 50 acres of land.