IIT Roorkee expert team visits heritage structures in Mysuru

Team inspects Devaraja Market and Lansdowne Building, following an order from the Supreme Court

Mysuru: A section of Mysureans favouring the restoration of a few heritage buildings got some hope again, as an expert team from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, Uttarakhand, visited Mysuru and inspected Devaraja Market and Lansdowne Building on Monday, following an order from the Supreme Court last month.

It may be recalled that the court sought a report from IIT Roorkee after the findings by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) were submitted, stating that the Devaraja Market and the Lansdowne Building can be preserved due to their cultural, historical and architectural values.

Petition by Gouri Satya

On September 4, a bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and Sandeep Mehta said the court would call for a report from the IIT Roorkee, on a plea by G Satyanarayana alias Gouri Satya.

The INTACH report stated that the buildings were designated as heritage structures in the master plans, signifying their importance and placing them under stringent development controls, as the Mysuru palace. The report stated that the structures can be preserved by adopting relatively minimal structural intervention techniques, while retaining the form, character and other intrinsic heritage values associated with them.

Govt plans to rebuild them

The Karnataka government, however, had submitted that it had decided to bring down the structures and rebuild them with the same facade and heritage look. The bench said, “Prima facie, we are of the view, more particularly, having regard to the report of INTACH, that if it is possible to preserve the two structures, as they are, with some repairs, then nothing like that”.

The court had asked the Director of IIT Roorkee to constitute an expert committee for evaluating the two buildings in question, their current status and to what extent they can be preserved as heritage structures, setting a deadline of eight weeks.

Two-day visit

Mysuru City Corporation Commissioner Shaikh Tanveer Asif said a four-member team, headed by professor Umesh Kumar Sharma, was on a two-day visit to Mysuru for a preliminary study of the two structures.

Superintending Engineer of the MCC Manju said the team would soon visit again for a detailed study and would submit a report to the Supreme Court.

Gouri Sathya, the petitioner, said he was not aware of the visit of the expert team, but he was happy that they visited the sites.

S Mahadev, Devaraja Market Shopkeepers Association president, said some members of the association were present during the visit and provided information to the expert team about the building.

While a portion of the Devaraja Market collapsed on August 28, 2016, a part of the Lansdowne Building collapsed on August 25, 2012, claiming four lives.

History

Both buildings were built during the time of Maharaja Chamarajendra Wadiyar. While the Devaraja Market was built from 1881 to 1894, the Lansdowne Building was inaugurated by Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th marquess of Lansdowne, who served as Viceroy of India, on November 10, 1892.