The landmark Mairie building which came down on Saturday after standing tall for 144 years as a symbol of French rule faces an uncertain future.
It was hardly a month since a much-delayed restoration effort finally began with the sanctioning of a Rs. 7.50 crore World Bank-funded project when the building bit the dust.
It was in October that the building was taken up for renovation under the Project Implementation Agency (PIA) of the Puducherry government with an assistance of Rs. 7.50 crore from World Bank.
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The task was entrusted to the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) after taking the technical advice of IIT, Madras and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
Now that this plan, launched as it was after several dire warnings about the unstable state of the Mairie building, has been rendered futile, it is anyone’s guess what it would take or how much it would cost to restore the historic building to its former glory.
“INTACH has the original plans of the existing building but not from the French period,” A.K. Das, Project Manager, INTACH said.
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The fall of the Mairie is also turning the spotlight on similar historic structures that abound in this city.
“We must look carefully at other buildings and avoid what happened to the Mairie,” said French Consul-General Philippe Janvier- Kamiyama. Local Administration Minister N.G. Pannirselvam, who inspected the damage to the Mairie on Saturday, expressed a resolve to inspect other heritage and ancient buildings of the French era to ascertain their stability.
Collector S. Sundaravadivelu said that the government had identified 21 heritage buildings in Puducherry for restoration.
“We will ascertain the structural stability of other buildings before taking up restoration,” he said.