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| Town hall, Visakhapatnam, AP in.worldorgs.com |
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| Town Hall, Visakhapatnam, AP. picxy.com |
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| Town Hall, Visakahapatnam, AP. in.worldorgs.com |
The good news is the 120-year-old grand Town Hall in Visakhapatnam built by the Rajah of Bobbili in 1893 at a cost of Rs. 50000, a whooping sum in those days, will be open to public pretty soon. The famous Town hall was in a state of total neglect for decades due to poor periodic maintenance by the city officials. Finally, the people of this natural harbor city will see the light at the end of the tunnel and the town hall that is steeped in history will be back to old charm and glory. The renovation of the town hall is nearing completion after having gone through a long period of total negligence and apathy. Upon completion, the old iconic structure will emerge in full splendor shedding light on the hey day of this town and its navigational history in the colonial and pre-colonial time, etc.
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| restoration of Town Hall, Vizag, AP. vizagvision.com |
Built to commemorate the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria, the town hall is often referred to as the Victoria Memorial Town Hall. Located in Old Jalaripeta (the old fishermen's cove), the two-story town hall came up on a hillock from which one could see the entire Vizag harbor. The fishermen used to live in this area. in the past. The ground floor of the of the Town Hall has a Madras Terrace roof with a pair of conical towers on the first floor. The ground floor roof is supported by special steel beams imported from Scotland. On the other hand the first floor has Mangalore tiled roof supported by high quality Burma teak wood beams and rafters.
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| Town Hall, Visakahapatnam, AP. in.worldorgs.com |
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| Town hall, Visakhapatnam thehindu.com |
The interesting feature of this town hall is it is one of the largest auditoriums entirely covered by Mangalore tiled roof supported by heavy wooden rafters. It is said in this part of Andhra ( then Madras Presidency) Mangalore tiles were never used on a large building for roof purpose till 19th century. The total carpet area of the building - ground and first floor together is 5000 sq feet. The thick walls are made of dressed cut stones of similar size. The conical towers on either side on the first floor have wooden ceiling. Yet another ingenious design is the presence of a verandah on the ground floor with wooden railing and wooden pillars. Aesthetically enhancing the look, the verandah will cut down the heat and radiation from outside and at the same time will keep the indoors well lit and cool.
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| .Location map, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. mapsofindia.com |
In 1904, the municipality took over the management of the town hall and presently it houses the Visakhapatnam club. Many cultural activities used to take place including weddings. It used to be a major venue for political meetings during freedom struggle and in 1929 Mahatma Gandhi addressed the meeting here. In 1931 Salt Satyagrapha was a major event. Gandhi traveled to Dandi in Gujarat to collect salt. same year Sri Rajaji travelled to Vedaranyam on the coastal Tamil Nadu to gather salt. Likewise just across the town hall the Salt Satyagraha took place and freedom fighters like Digumarti Janaki Bai, Digumarthi Venkata Swamy, Tenneti Viswantham and Kolluru Suryam Gupta broke the Salt Laws and collected salt from the beach across the town hall.
GVMC - the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation some time back undertook the renovation work on the Town Hall and the adjacent Old Municipal Building and will be open to public as early as possible. Plans are afoot to convert the Town Hall into a museum that will focus on the colonial history of this place. As for the Municipal building, it will be used to host cultural events, exhibitions and workshops, etc. The other proposal is the entire place will become no-vehicle zone and the main road would be used for parking vehicles.
The total cost of restoration was ₹15 crore and it was done by Savani Heritage Conservation Pvt. Ltd. They made a scientific approach in restoring several parts of the dilapidated structure with similar materials that were used in the original construction.
According to a restoration manager: ''Three types of materials were mainly used in the restoration process—lime plastering, teakwood work and Mangalore tiles. Only for the flooring, we had to use epoxy instead of the original Indian Patent Stone (IPS) flooring.'' to deal with IPS.....''we decided to go with a lighter type of flooring with three-millimeter thickness,”
Both heritage structures have an amphitheater built outside the entrance. The installation of a unique eight-foot-long hanging lights in the largest part of the town hall was done for the first time in a heritage structure. Amphitheater is not part of the original plan; the purpose here is to host the cultural events to showcase the rich tradition and ethos of Andhra. The Town Hall still retains the original billiards table dating back to the 1910s with a cue and scoring board on the wall that belonged to the Visakhapatnam Club. The restored town hall and the municipal building of Vizag will benefit the posterity. This newly renovated vestige of the past colonial legacy will be an additional attraction for this sprawling coastal city.
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