Science City, on EM Bypass. A Telegraph picture Firemen fight the flames at Saqi Bar on Sunday. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha The state will get its second Science City in Barasat. The National Council of Science Museums, which runs the Bypass Science City, has agreed to set up the North 24-Parganas facility on a plot offered by the state government. "They have conveyed their choice to chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb,' said a joint secretary in the state municipal affairs department. The proposed Science City will have a convention centre, a big auditorium, a mini auditorium and an airconditioned seminar hall equipped with the latest audio-visual system, said a Science City official. The council is getting the plot in Barasat in lieu of five acres on the Bypass campus which it will return to the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC). The CMC, in return, will waive off Science City's property tax dues of around Rs 20 crore that have accrued over the past 15 years. As part of the arrangement, the civic body from now will levy only service charge, instead of property tax, on Science City. "The vacant land has become a burden for us,' said a Science City official. In the CMC area, property tax on land is more than that on buildings. Last year, the Science City authorities approached the civic commissioner with a plea to waive off the property tax dues. Following the state government's intervention, the CMC agreed to waive off the dues in exchange of the five acres. The government, on its part, promised the council a plot for a second Science City. The state on Thursday gave the nod to the CMC for finalising the agreement with Science City on transfer of land. The civic authorities hope to raise at least Rs 250 crore by selling the Bypass plot. "The money will be used to pay our share in the projects being undertaken under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission,' said civic commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay.