The Department of Archaeology Museums and Heritage has listed 11 buildings in Mysuru city as requiring maintenance and intervention on a priority basis, and the final report will be submitted to the government in due course.
This was part of the exercise undertaken by the department to study the status of the notified heritage structures in Mysuru for which site visits followed by inspection with technical persons was conducted early this year.
The exercise stretched for a few weeks and the report is in the final stages of preparation. It will be submitted to the Deputy Commissioner who heads the District Heritage and Conservation Committee, said A. Devaraju, Commissioner, Department of Archaeology Museums and Heritage.
There are 131 notified heritage structures in Mysuru and the department is preparing the cost estimates for conservation and restoration of the 11 buildings to be submitted to the government.
The 11 buildings are Vani Vilas Market, Old DC office, Fire Brigade Building at Sarawathipuram, Maharani’s Science College, Government Certified School for Girls, Maharaja’s College, Yuvaraja’s College, Union Building, Lakshmipuram Girls School which now houses the office of the Karnataka State Dr.Gangubai Hangal Music and Performing Arts University, Government Children’s Girls Home and Maharaja’s Sanskrit Patashala, said Mr. Devaraju.
Incidentally, a majority of the structures are educational institutions and the list also includes Maharani’s Science College a portion of which collapsed last year putting a question mark on the structural stability of the building.
The fire brigade building at Saraswathipuram also collapsed during heavy rains a few years ago and nothing has been done to restore it due to paucity of funds so far.
Prof. N.S. Rangaraju member of the District Heritage and Conservation Committee welcomed the Archaeology Department’s initiative and said that it will give an impetus to the conservation exercise which had taken a back seat.
He said some of the Grade A heritage structures like Jayalakshmi Vilas Mansion is not in the list but that requires a separate endeavour with either corporate funding or government budgetary support given the scale and cost involved. The restoration of Jayalakshmi Vilas Mansion is expected to cost not less than ₹30 crore and parallel efforts are on to secure funding. Hence, it is prudent to list heritage structures whose conservation will not require a large sum but is nevertheless important, said Dr. Rangaraju.
It is significant that the list of buildings include educational institutions as these structures are still in use and lack of maintenance and restoration could jeopardise the safety of students.
Apart from preparation of status report of 131 notified heritage structures, another exercise is also in the offing to revise their numbers by including a few more structures under the heritage list. But Dr. Rangaraju said the committee can recommend the buildings for inclusion in the heritage list but the decision to notify them as heritage structures will be taken by the government.
