Plastic buckets — small and large — are spotted at regular intervals amid aesthetic pieces of art as one walks through the Kerala State Handicrafts Emporium on the first floor of the 24-storeyed Public Utility Building on M.G. Road. The staff is in dismay as they rearrange the artefacts to avoid contact with the water dripping from various points of the roof.
After the recent scare at Mantri Square mall, where a portion of the roof collapsed owing to what is suspected to be a leakage in the air-conditioning duct, occupants of the government-owned Public Utility Building are a worried lot.
“Water is collected pretty quickly in the buckets. We have to keep a watch on that too to throw it out and replace the bucket before water starts overflowing,” said one of them, who was seen monitoring the water levels while attending to the two customers who strolled in.
It was on Monday, two days after employees returned from Sankranti holiday and Sunday break, that they discovered the unpleasant surprise. Handicraft worth lakhs had been destroyed so far, staff of the Kerala government-owned emporium said, displaying fungus-ridden metal pieces. Expensive wooden ones had been accommodated in other parts of the emporium to save them from being destroyed.
The other government enterprise housed in the skyscraper — the National Textile Corporation — which is adjacent to the Kerala emporium, is slightly better off. But the strips of brown tape on the ceiling bears evidence to the seepage.
The management of Fame Shankar Nag theatre, which is situated above the two showrooms, said the cause of the leakage was a pipeline that ran under its property.
Meanwhile, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike officials said the problem was being looked into. L. Venkatesh, executive engineer (Projects), East, said the pipelines in the building were as old as the building itself — around 40 years old. “We are getting them checked and rectified,” he said.
A picture of neglect
Despite being a towering presence in the central business district, shops in the Utility Building do not attract many visitors. “There is no upkeep. The old-timers come because they know we are here. But new visitors will not give the building a second look,” said a staff member of one of the shops.
The paan-stained staircases and the quiet corridors showed what they meant. Slow business was a common complaint, despite being located in a coveted destination in the city. “We lost out on business after malls started coming in. Now, it has gotten worse,” said another staff member in a shop.
