GUWAHATI, Dec 9 - About 90 per cent physical progress has been attained in the implementation of the Rs 9.69-crore project to develop the century-old Kamrup Deputy Commissioner�s Bungalow on the Sukreswar Hillock here into a Brahmaputra Heritage Centre and its sprawling campus into a recreational and educational hub for the people. Implementation of the project is expected to be completed by the end of the current month.
Work to implement the project started in December, 2014, with financial support from the State government. The Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) is implementing the project.
According to GMDA sources, the project is sought to be implemented as a pilot one for conservation of the rich heritage of the State. It includes works like turning the historic building into a heritage bungalow-cum-museum and converting the entire site to a recreational and educational hub for Guwahatians.
The historic DC Bungalow will thus be converted into a heritage museum to promote the cultural values of the north-eastern region. By this time, the bungalow has been restored at a cost of around Rs 2 crore, sources said.
On the campus of the bungalow, a research block comprising a conference room, an administrative office, a cafeteria, an amphitheatre, two jetties, four sunken view galleries to view the river and its beautiful environment and pathways along with landscaping have also been developed.
Arrangements have also been made to illuminate the entire complex, besides installing CCTVs and fire fighting devices on it. There will be a ticket counter and a gate at its entry, sources said.
Though, considering the age of the bungalow it has been sought to be developed into a heritage centre linking with the mighty Brahmaputra, which is the lifeline of the civilisation of the State�s Brahmaputra Valley people, the details of its activities are yet to be formulated, sources said.
Meanwhile, AVESANA Architecture Conservation Environment, the architecture firm, which has been entrusted with the job to give the building and its campus a new look and rejuvenate its structure, has stated that it has undertaken the job with the spirit to re-establish it as a seat of think-tank for the entire North East, which it was in the bygone days. Efforts have also been made to make it emerge as a place of learning.
�The adaptive reuse and conservation of the erstwhile DC bungalow was done by the architects with the main goal of ensuring participation of the thinkers in revitalisation of the site and the city and then to extended it to other historic settlements along the entire river,� said Smita Datta Makhija of the architects� group.
The endeavour on this project was to lay the benchmarks on how to deal with a heritage site, conserve the historic components so as to retain their authenticity, give a new contemporary use to the site which will bring the habitability levels to the modern-day needs, make it accessible for the differently able persons and open up the space for public to explore, admire and reconnect with the glorious past. A multidisciplinary team worked on the revitalisation of this historic site, she said.
The conservation and contextual design process was led by AVESANA principal architect Zia-ul-Hussain, while the conservation, restoration and rejuvenation strategy was designed by Smita Datta Makhija, a conservation architect.
Savita Punde from the Design Cell created the landscape connections, while noted engineer Dr Jayanta Pathak, along with Kuldeep Kaushik, worked on the structural retrofit of the historic building. The structural design of the research wing and landscape structure was done by Sudha Technical Consultants, Makhija said.
The heritage building�s adaptive reuse proposal took into maximising the use of the spatial volume of the structure. A usable mezzanine floor was inserted in the building. The original structural system was designed by the British with the help of Japanese engineers, post-June 12, 1897, earthquake in Assam and had an estimated moment magnitude of over 8. This design had an inbuilt safety capacity for seismic movements. This was the key principle for the structural retrofit. A load bearing section of the mezzanine floor was inserted within the historic structure to move independent of the original structure without one colliding with the other, Makhija said.
Makhija said that she has so far been receiving immense support from GMDA Chief Executive Officer Dr M Angamuthu and his team of officials and the contractor engaged for the purpose in translating her group�s design into reality.
