Top cop to function out of new building in a week

The police commissioner and his staff will move from the 140-year-old colonial structure to the adjacent new building on Infantry Road in about a week.

In all probability, Police Commissioner N S Megharik will vacate his current chambers which has seen 31 commissioners from C Chandy to M N Reddi between 1963 and 2015. The new building which cost Rs 35 crore was inaugurated by then Home Minister R Ashoka in 2013, when B G Jyothiprakash Mirji was the police commissioner.

Megharik told reporters on Monday: “I have instructed the contractors to finish the remaining work before January 16. I told them I would begin operations from the second floor chambers of the new building even if it is not fully ready.”

Mirji, his successors Raghavendra Auradkar and M N Reddi did not move to the new building reportedly due to ‘vaastu’ problems. There are plans to convert the old structure into a police museum. The building initially housed a magistrate court with prison cells.