Future of Lansdowne building still uncertain

3-member panel submits two separate reports; Cabinet to take final call

Will the Lansdowne building be demolished or renovated keeping in mind its heritage significance? It will take another  week for an answer to emerge with members of the technical panel constituted by the State government expressing contrary opinions.

Giving details of the report submitted by the panel, Medical Education and district in-charge Minister S A Ramdas told reporters on Tuesday that a decision would be taken at the Cabinet meeting in Bangalore on September 13. He said that according to experts, it was still unsafe to resume activities in the building.

Prior to this, separate meetings will be conducted to elicit the opinions of elected representatives and tenants of the building. The minister said, Dr C S Viswanatha, chairman of Civil-Aid Technoclinic Private Limited, Bangalore and Syed Shakeeb-Ur-Rahman, vice-principal and dean (academic), Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering, Mysore, both members of the committee, had recommended either partial restoration or rebuilding the entire structure, so that it can last for another 80 to 100 years. The third member V Govindankutty has stressed the need for restoring the building at any cost.

Viswanatha and Syed Shakeeb-Ur-Rahman, in their report, have recommended that the foundation be retained. They have called for retaining the ground floor masonry walls with appropriate strengthening measures, followed by the total reconstruction of the ground floor ceiling, the first floor masonry walls, the first floor ceiling, the balcony areas and the architectural features.

The foundation is still safe and the same cannot be said about other structures as the building has partially collapsed thrice, including on August 25 when four people died.  
With the present day technology, it is possible to implement these recommendations in six to eight months at an estimated cost of Rs 3.5 crore. They have suggested 12 steps to restore the 120-year-old structure.

According to Govindankutty, who is also the chief executive officer of Indian Heritage Cities Network Foundation (IHCN-F), the building should be restored and conserved. What the building needs is regular maintenance that will make sure it lasts for centuries to come. In his concluding remarks, the expert has stressed the need for ensuring the safety limits set by ISI in the individual elements that have gone into its construction (bricks, timber, steel, etc.).

 Total load calculations must be made on sections and verified against load limits of individual parts (beams, wall masonry, Madras terrace, etc.) by experts and studied as a model to ascertain the residual life of the building, before condemning the building for demolition, which is the last and terminal option seldom advocated in heritage buildings globally. The restoration work may take one to one-and-a-half years and the cost estimate is around Rs two crore, he said.