21 July,2011 07:11 AM IST | | Vivek Sabnis
146-year-old engineering institute to spend Rs 6 crore on structure
Students and visitors to the College of Engineering Pune (CoEP) will be greeted by a spanking new building this October. Not waiting for the civic body to loosen its purse strings, the college authorities have decided to bear the Rs 6 crore that will be incurred to restore its 150-year-old building. The edifice, which comes under Grade I in the heritage list of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), was constructed in August 1865.
Salvaging the past: Renovation work is in progress at theu00a0 146-year-old
institute. Pic/Krunal Gosavi
The conservation work has been by internationally renowned architect Abha Lamba. The restoration work which started two months ago shall continue till October."We are spending the money for renovation from our own pocket. Fortunately, we have our own corpus fund in the government treasury under the head of Public Ledger Accounts (PLA), which we are spending for the restoration. Being a premier engineering institute, we were expecting some help from the PMC, but we had to face many hurdles to get an approval for repairs of CoEP's main building," Dr Anil Sahastrabuddhe, director of CoEP.
Lamba said the priority was to make the building habitable for another 100 years. "We are cleaning the original basalt stone used in the structure with the latest conservation techniques. Our idea is to highlight the original beauty of the basalt stone worked in the Central Convocation Hall in the building. The building will be equipped with facilities required in an engineering college. The work is expected to be completed by Diwali.
PMC's support role
Shyam Dhavale, head of the heritage cell, PMC, said: "We are here to support them. We cannot help them financially. We are here to ensure that the guidelines set by the Archeological Society of India is followed during the restoration work. We asked them to use the local basalt stone for repairing works which was used in the original structure.u00a0 The second condition was to develop a garden in the surrounding areas, which they promised to follow. Permission to remove unused toilets and bathrooms was also given. We are awaiting the interim report from the CoEP about the progress," he said.
Heritage value
The CoEP main building was designed by W S Howard and the foundation stone of the college was laid by His Excellency, the Governor of Bombay Sir Bartle Frere on August 5, 1865. The total cost of constructing the building was Rs 1, 81,647 of which Rs 5,000 was given by Cowasji Jehangir, who was a prominent member of Mumbai's Parsi community.
