The recently-renovated 160-year-old Dalanda House, currently known as the Police Training School (PTS), was bestowed the KMC-INTACH Award for Excellence in Conservation (Kolkata Municipal Corporation and Indian National Trust for Art and Culture Heritage) here on Tuesday.
“The restoration of Dalanda House in South Kolkata is the best homage we can pay to our predecessors for the sacrifices they had made,” Commissioner of Kolkata Police Surajit Kar Purkayastha said.
He also said that despite the work pressure and inadequate staff, the effort of officers involved in the project is commendable.
Speaking at the event, INTACH State convener G. M. Kapur pointed out that Kolkata Police is receiving the award for the second time, the first time being for the restoration of the Limelight building in 2012. “We urge the Kolkata Police to take up more such restoration projects like this that has turned this building into a landmark,” he added.
Dalanda House was constructed in 1848 as the only mental asylum catering to Peshwar in the West and Burma in the East. In 1906, the then Calcutta Police Commissioner Fredrick Halliday was the first to use it as a police training centre. The building is associated with some prominent figures of the Kolkata Police such as arms expert Samir Sarkar whom Satyajit Ray consulted while making his movie Shatranj Ke Khilari . It currently houses the headquarters of the Dog Squad, Bomb Disposal Squad and the Disaster Management Group of the Kolkata Police.
