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| Dist. Collectors Bungalow within AU campus,Vizag .yovizag.com |
Located in the silent corner of vast Andhra University campus is a heritage colonial building, often referred to as the official residence of the Visakhapatnam District magistrate,(popularly known as the Collector's Bungalow). The humble looking single story structure with a gently projected porch and arched entrance stands aloof with a large compound that is not connected to the university. One may be wondering what has a collector's bungalow got to do with an educational institution without being a part of it.
Edward Paul, a Visakhapatnam based heritage enthusiast, unwrapping the riddle says when the sprawling Andhra university was divided into north and south campuses with engineering college, hostels,etc., were confined to the north campus and law college arts and science institution and hostels, etc were allotted to the south campus. Also included on the south campus are the library, registrar’s office, Vice Chancellor’s lodge and many teaching staff quarters. The Collector's bungalow is on the south campus; perhaps, we have to presume that the bungalow was included unwittingly!!
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| Visakhapatnam, Ap .indiatimes.com |
From the old city map of In 1907, the Collector’s bungalow was located at the site of the present Government Officers' Club or very close to it in Pandurangapuram. Government records are not clear as to the date of construction of the bungalow. It can be deciphered from the map that the said bungalow appears to be a huge and extensive one and had been there fora long time. From the same map, one could see the present location of the university’s south campus and the presence of Conservator of Forests Bungalow. When the Forest department handed over the land to the university, it retained the Forest bungalow, It was in 1939 it was declared the official residence of the district collector. But the district collectorate began functioning in 1913. That why did the Raj take so much time to allot a government residence for the head of the DA is a moot question.
