Just over 100 years after the British shifted their capital from Kolkata to New Delhi, Mamata Banerjee is moving her seat of governance from the city to Howrah.
The chief minister on Wednesday unveiled her plan to build a new secretariat across the Hooghly that will see Bengal being ruled from outside the iconic Writers’ Buildings, which was designed by Thomas Lyon in 1777 as the central office for junior officials of the East India Company in Calcutta.
While the government expects the new secretariat to come up at Dumurjala Stadium Complex within four years, it will start vacating the 236-year-old Writers’ Buildings immediately to allow its restoration and shift to the 14-storeyed HRBC building in Howrah’s Mandirtala, less than 100 metres from Vidyasagar Setu, from October 1.
The Rs.200-crore restoration of Writers’, the CM’s dream project, will see four of the 13 blocks built after 1947 razed to cut the clutter and congestion inside the heritage structure and take the façade closer to its original appearance. The restoration is expected to be completed within three months after which the government will move back to Writers’ before making the permanent shift to Dumurjala when it’s completed.
The move is not just about shifting of departments. Mamata wants to break away from the laid-back past, the lethargy and red tape that have held Bengal back. Showcasing the state begins from the CMO and the Writers’ Buildings in its present form, heavily partitioned and warren-like with its cubbyhole offices and labyrinthine corridors, doesn’t impress. The secretariat shift is also an effort to give the state’s and its government’s image a makeover.
Efforts to unclutter Writers’ have been on for several years and many departments have been moved to other locations but the secretariat remained shabby and dingy.
Mamata has given herself three months for the restoration work to be completed, but conservation architects and restoration experts wondered how the mammoth restoration could be done in such a short time.
The chief minister on Wednesday unveiled her plan to build a new secretariat across the Hooghly that will see Bengal being ruled from outside the iconic Writers’ Buildings, which was designed by Thomas Lyon in 1777 as the central office for junior officials of the East India Company in Calcutta.
While the government expects the new secretariat to come up at Dumurjala Stadium Complex within four years, it will start vacating the 236-year-old Writers’ Buildings immediately to allow its restoration and shift to the 14-storeyed HRBC building in Howrah’s Mandirtala, less than 100 metres from Vidyasagar Setu, from October 1.
The Rs.200-crore restoration of Writers’, the CM’s dream project, will see four of the 13 blocks built after 1947 razed to cut the clutter and congestion inside the heritage structure and take the façade closer to its original appearance. The restoration is expected to be completed within three months after which the government will move back to Writers’ before making the permanent shift to Dumurjala when it’s completed.
The move is not just about shifting of departments. Mamata wants to break away from the laid-back past, the lethargy and red tape that have held Bengal back. Showcasing the state begins from the CMO and the Writers’ Buildings in its present form, heavily partitioned and warren-like with its cubbyhole offices and labyrinthine corridors, doesn’t impress. The secretariat shift is also an effort to give the state’s and its government’s image a makeover.
Efforts to unclutter Writers’ have been on for several years and many departments have been moved to other locations but the secretariat remained shabby and dingy.
Mamata has given herself three months for the restoration work to be completed, but conservation architects and restoration experts wondered how the mammoth restoration could be done in such a short time.
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