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| .Gol Kothi, Kapurthala , Punjab.hindustantimes.com |
185-year-old Gol Kothi. Kapurthala near Jalandhar city that was declared unsafe in 2016 by the PWD is almost recovered and restored back to past glory glory. The work was undertaken at a cost of 4.98 crore under the ''conservation and adaptive reuse of colonial heritage'' project.
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| Gol Kothi, Kapurthala,, Punjab. tribuneindia.com |
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| dilapidated Gol Kothi, Kapurthala Jalandhar, Punjab. hindustantimes.com |
Spread over nine kanals and nine marlas, this old colonial structure had been in a state of neglect for a pretty long time and at one stage it became structurally weak and unsafe. Literally the fine colonial building was in shambles for beyond the time limit. The wall of the rooms on the back portion had already caved in and the rest of the building was i bad shape owing to poor upkeep. PWD closed part of the building temporarily 5 years ago and the safer side of the building was used as the residence of the Chief Medical Officer.
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| Gol Kothi, kapuathala (jalandhur) commons.wikimedia.org |
Finally, the state government interfered and undertook the repair work on a war footing to save it from total destruction. The task of restoring the heritage building has been assigned to the Rajputana Constructions Pvt Ltd, a Rajasthan-based company. Part of the conservation work included the Darbar Hall and Buggy Khana. The restoration work began in earnest in November 2017 and is nearing completion now.
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| Location map, kapurthala, Pujab, India. censusindia.co.in |
What was special about the Kothi? Located right opposite the office of Kapurthala SSP, it was the residence of Maharajah Jagatjit Singh in the 1880s. H spent his formative years here. The kothi was originally built by Maharajah Fateh Singh in 1833 and it was to be used as the residence of Maha Mantri (Prime Minister) of his erstwhile princely state.
Conservationist took particular care to retain the old value and heritage elements in the building. So, they brought experienced skilled workers from Madhya Pradesh to keep the heritage look in tact. The masonry work was done using slaked lime and red sandstone. The purpose of using a blend of redbrick dust, slaked lime and other materials is to strengthen the walls, etc. They are known to possess cementing properties that bind the construction materials. Conservation is a time consuming job and requires patience and right choice of construction materials to match the original. This way original features of the building can be retained.
The conservation project aims at two things - retention of old features and adaptive reuse. How best the retained old structure can be put to reuse in an effective way in the future.
Yet another heritage building is the Moorish Mosque that was built by Maharajah Jagatjit Singh and it was recently restored under the project. It is a good example of Marrakesh architecture and there are only two mosques in the world built in this style.
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/jalandhar/187-year-old-gol-kothi-regains-its-original-glory-270824
