Both old and historical schools - VOC school and Calve College govt. HS school of Puducherry are undergoing repair and restoration after a prolonged protests from the public after 2012. Though the Thane cyclone in 2014 gave a wake up call, again there was another long delay due to redtapism. Only in the middle of August 2021 the Puducherry Smart City Development Limited (PSCDL) gave approval to restore the two school buildings initially. A sum of Rs.2.8 crore was allocated for VOC school (1886) and Rs.4.8 crore for Calve College govt. school (1875 CE) and the wok will be done by private firms.
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| VOC school, Puducherry. thehindu.com |
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| VOC school, Puducherry helpmecovid.com |
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| VOC School, Puducherry facebook.com |
The building was not periodically maintained and only classes 11 and 12 were allowed to function in the inner most part with a separate entrance. This part was cordoned off from the heritage structure to avoid damages and accidents. Rest of the classes were shifted to other govt. buildings. The students were put to untold hardship as the repair work was not prioritized.
The irresponsible official apathy persisted notwithstanding the fact that the ASI, in a report in 2012, had mentioned about the poor state of this school as well as other schools - Calve College Govt. HSS and Pensionnat De Jeunes Filles, only French Girls' high school. Again there was no action to save the historical school buildings despite protests against the ruling government from the parents Had immediate action been taken way back in 2012, much of the damages to these school buildings could have been avoided thus saving the higher costs of repairs with the passage of time. INTACH also made a futile attempt to get the government to act on the dying buildings. The government missed the opportunity to restore the V. O. C school long ago. INTACH in the past did carry out some repair work and after a study in 2004-05 they gave an estimate of just Rs. 40 lakh to repair and restore the school building and now the cost estimate is around Rs. 4.5 crore.
The collapse of the 144-year-old Mairie (Town Hall) Building, the seat of municipal administration (including mayor's office) in the French era and one of the primary landmarks of Puducherry, on the 29th of November. 2014 due to heavy NE monsoon rains made the officials wake up from their long hibernation. The sudden collapse of the roof made them understand the real threats being faced by the aging and neglected heritage buildings in the union territory. As for the schools, the students were put to maximum hardship besides their school work and and heavy syllabus.
In dealing with heavily damaged historical structures of diverse architecture with distinctive aesthetic appeal, the conservation engineers have to spend extra time and use matching construction materials, etc., to restore them back to the original look, a tough job that needs additional planning, implementation of old construction technique and sourcing right materials, etc. The massive building is a dominant one in this area with a large frontage along the street bounded by the road on three sides. It is at the corner of Mission Street and Nidarajapayer Street of Puducherry.
