PARIS, Feb 13: The Eiffel Tower, France’s most popular paid tourist attraction, is desperately in need of space, in part to handle an important influx of visitors, notably from Asia and Eastern Europe.

After months of hard bargaining and waiting, the authorities who manage the tower — which is owned by a semi-private company, the SNTE (Societe nouvelle d’exploitation de la tour Eiffel) — have persuaded the new Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, to authorize them to construct two additional levels.

And, as the 324-metre edifice can no longer grow any taller, the Eiffel Tower is planning to expand downwards into the Paris subsoil that adjoins the Seine River in the sixteen arrondissement where it was built between 1887 and 1889.

According to a plan that has just received the go-ahead of Paris Mayor Delanoe, the Eiffel Tower will dig deep into the ground to create a 10,000 square metre two-storey structure that will house a congress center, restaurants, and a museum devoted to the Tower itself.

Jean-Bernard Bros, 46, the new president of SNTE says that the time has come to give the Tower, built in 1889, the means to expand and deal with an ever-increasing number of visitors.