The 117-year-old Town Hall building, recognised as a heritage structure, is a monument in shambles and a disaster waiting to happen. In front of the broken main door of the building rests a fragile old man. A group of boys sits on the steps near the door waiting to start their next game of cricket in the open space in front. As the morning rays of the sun fall on the rooftop of the Gothic edifice, a pigeon flies from a branch growing out of the walls of the structure. Built by the Maharaja of Bobbili in 1901, in memory of Queen Victoria, the grandeur of this structure today has been reduced to a shadow of its past and desperately awaits restoration. Once called the Victoria Diamond Jubilee Town Hall, the iconic building was handed over to the Municipality in 1904.
After years of neglect, the century-old heritage structure is now set to get a new lease of life. Under the Vizag Smart City Project, the Town Hall and Old Municipal Building will soon be given a facelift. “The renovation of the Town Hall is being taken up with an idea to ensure the history of Visakhapatnam is furthered. The building will be restored as per the original plan with no additions and put to public use,” says Commissioner of Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) M Hari Narayanan. The restoration work for the two buildings will be taken up at a total cost of around ₹ 11 crore.
A new life
The Town Hall will be given a facelift at the cost of ₹ 4.13 crore. “The wooden timber roof and damaged parts of wooden flooring will be replaced, lime plastering on walls, lighting around the building and soft landscaping will be part of the restoration project. The roof of the edifice will be carefully restored. We have called for tenders and the last date is August 16,” says V Sudhakar, executive engineer, GVMC. The Old Municipal Building will be given a facelift at the cost of ₹ 6.84 crore. As part of the project, pathways will be developed leading to the two structures. The works for both buildings are expected to be completed in a year’s time.
While the Old Municipal Building dates back to the early 1930s, the Town Hall’s British-era structure is one of the first buildings in the district to have a massive wooden floor made out of Burma Teak. Back then, it had the largest auditorium that had a roof entirely made of Mangalore tiles with the ceiling supported by wooden rafters. Located at the entrance of one of the labyrinthine alleys of One Town, the old part of the city, the Town Hall is a repository of stories. The silent walls of the grand structure have been a mute witness to many fiery speeches delivered by freedom fighters such as Mahatma Gandhi who addressed a gathering here in 1929.
Rich past
It also saw eminent personalities such as C Rajagopalachari, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, CV Raman, Rabindranath Tagore and MS Subbulakshmi setting the stage on fire with their speeches and performances and has stood the test of time — but only just. It even withstood the severe cyclone Hudhud in 2014, but fell victim to human apathy. “The municipal corporation turned a blind eye to it for a long time. The most damage was done when it was let out for weddings and functions a couple of years ago. These eventually affected the ceiling and the walls. There was major dereliction,” says Edward Paul, a chronicler of history. By 2016, the structure was in shambles. The place became a haven for anti-social elements with broken bottles of spirits strewn across the wooden floor and many destitutes seeking shelter under the gloomy roof of the building. It was a signal of an impending disaster. . Heritage lovers and history buffs made repeated efforts to bring the rapid dilapidation to the notice of the corporation.
However, the bigger challenge will be to carry out the restoration work without disturbing the original nature of the buildings and to have a maintenance plan for their upkeep in the future. The restoration work taken up by GVMC will be in consultation with INTACH. “Materials have to be carefully selected for the restoration. If you put a patch of cement with the existing lime mortar which the Town Hall building was originally built with, it will be a total mismatch. So we need to study the architecture and structure of the building before taking up the restoration work,” says Mayank Kumari Deo, convenor of Indian National Trust of Art and Culture Heritage (INTACH), Visakhapatnam chapter.
According to Deo, a sustainable maintenance plan for the heritage building will safeguard its future. “Art exhibitions, periodical Powerpoint presentations on the history of Visakhapatnam along with exhibition of rare pictures showcasing its past glory are some of the suggestions we will be putting forth,” she says.
