Thaindian News

New Delhi, April 18 (IANS) Noted economist Deepak Nayyar, former vice chancellor of Delhi University, Monday said the restoration of the Viceregal lodge on the campus, which has been continuously in use since the British Raj, could be a possible model for heritage conservation in India.

The story of the restoration of the historic colonial lodge - once the home of the country’s last viceroy Lord Louis Mountbatten - as a living heritage was the theme of the third Pupul Jayakar Memorial Lecture, “Rethinking Restoration and “Rethinking Heritage and Restoration, Discovering a Small Inheritance”.

The lecture was organised by the Indian National Trust for Arts and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) Monday to mark the World Heritage Day.

Nayyar, who conceived the project, led the restoration of the lodge between December 2002 to October 2004 during his tenure as the vice chancellor.

The sprawling lodge, nestled at the base of the northern ridge, is embedded in the history of the British Raj in India.

Lord Mounbatten “met one of the lodge girls Edwina and proposed to her in room number 13 of the sprawling colonial mansion.” The two subsequently got engaged at the lodge.

The lodge was also the residence of five British viceroys to India between 1912 and 1931, till a new residence was built for Lord Mountbatten.

The lodge, initially built to house victorious British troops, later served as the vice chancellor’s office and the Delhi University’s administrative quarters, Nayyar told a packed house at the Alliance Francaise in the capital.

“When I walked in, the state of the old viceregal lodge was dilapidated. It was difficult to imagine what was the original - the relationship of the building with its exterior landcape,” Nayyar recalled.

The original garden had been modified and “high red walls hid the building from view”, he said. A post-office hid the verandah and “on entering the building, one felt that one was in jail”.

The original spaces had been modified, blocking regions, he said.

“The offices were dark and dingy with fluorescent lights and doors covered in layers of enamel paint,” he said. The original woodwork was smothered, the toilets leaked, along with the air-conditioners, he recounted. “The viceregal ballroom was a furniture junk,” he said.

Nayyar said a combination of historical and personal factors prompted him to take up the project.

“The personal came in part from the interest in history and architecture of buildings,” he said. The historical compulsion was that the “lodge was an important part of history of India between 1911 and 1931″.

All that Nayyar and his team (most associates at the university) had was an old 1930s photograph of the facade of the building. “The beginnings were critical,” Nayyar said. It was critical planning of the restoration.

He submitted a project to the Urban Heritage Foundation and received a grant-in-aid of Rs.3 crore. “We had 60,000 square feet of built area and a timeline of 18 months,” he said.

The task included relocating people and shifting offices.

But the funds were not enough. Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit granted an additional Rs.1 crore and and the University Grants Commission made an extraordinary grant-in-aid. “We had Rs.5.5 crore to start with,” he said.

He later moved the Urban Heritage Commission for a supplementary grant of Rs.7 crore.

Restoration revealed the original architecture of the building - the layered structures and high colonial ceilings. The gardens were redrawn and a bust of late prime minister Jawharlal Nehru relocated. The viceregal ballroom was converted into a convention hall.

At the end of the restoration, the team chanced upon an old Central Public Works Department (CPWD) plan of the building. “It was clairvoyant,” Nayyar said.

The original plan was a mirror of “the restored building”.

The initial scepticism over the restoration soon gave away to acceptance and a sense of ownership and pride, Nayyar said.

The economist accompanied his lecture with photographs of the lodge before and after its restoration.