By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: The Dak Bungalow at Mahatab Road, the oldest colonial vestige of Bhubaneswar, is slated for demolition for the construction of a Kalyan Mandap. The Prachi Division has been allocated a sum of Rs 2.60 crores, and ground work has been started.
The Dak Bungalow has an interesting history. Built sometime in the 1850’s for the convenience for British officers, it was also the staging point for mail runners of the Imperial Mail Service.
For years it served as a makeshift court house for proceedings held by the British officials. The many properties in the Old Town that were taken up the gentry of Bengal under the draconian Sunset Law were auctioned at this place. It was also used by the surveyors of the Great Indian Trigonometrical Survey held between 1840-1870. The Bengal Nagpur Railways engineers too had used the place when the railway was being laid. It is just 500 metres from the railway line to Puri.
The modest two roomed bungalow was set in thickly wooded plot with a well and two out houses for the Khansama and Chowkidar. The large walled compound was dotted with trees, many fruit bearing and others for shade. Just a single tamarind tree remains. The Dak Bungalow was renovated during the visit of Lord Curzon in 1899; it was from here that he went to the Curzon Tower to view the Lingaraj Temple. The place has been known as the Dakabangala Chhak since ages. Old timers tell of the times when leopards would come and rest in the veranda.
The Dak Bungalow was converted into the Settlement office and remained as the R.I office for years before a new adjoining building was made. This building, which has been witness to so much history and has survived the vicissitudes of time lies neglected. Locals say that the place is haunted, with its share of strange paranormal happenings. Old timers recollect that there were two graves of Englishmen inside the compound, however no trace of them can be found.
INTACH has been persistently writing to the Government about the neglect to this historic structure. They had formed a team and inspected the abandoned place and submitted a report. The building was found to be structurally intact, the thick walls and the wooden roof beams are undamaged; the building can be easily restored with some conservation efforts. Even the out houses and the horse stable are in a restorable condition. Built of thick laterite stone blocks and chunsurkhi, the walls have little damage except for the peeling plaster. INTACH had suggested that the place was ideal for making a site museum and interpretation centre of the various artefacts of the Old Town.
Anil Dhir, the Convener of INTACH’s Bhubaneswar Chapter has unearthed many accounts of the Englishmen who had stayed here for months, convalescing from diseases like malaria and tuberculosis. Many physicians of Calcutta would recommend patients to go to Bhubaneswar and imbibe the therapeutic mineral waters of the well inside the Kedar Gouri temple complex. It was believed that the water had curative and rejuvenating properties. A two storied sanatorium had been made near the present day Ravi Talkies, which too catered to the convalescing Britishers. Unfortunately it was demolished ten years ago and a block of flats has come up at the place.
During two different occasions in the last regime, it had been planned to demolish the structure, but the timely intervention of Intach’s State Chapter had stopped it. Dhir said that much mindless destruction of heritage had happened during the Ekamrakhestra Beautification Project, whatever remains should be properly conserved. Even the locals are against the project, as the Dak Bungalow compound is the only open space left.
