From Our Correspondent
Agartala: The retrofitting work of Ujjayanta Palace which was scheduled to get completed by August 15, will now take another year.
Though the BBR, a Bangalore based Indo – Swiss Construction Company has been working on the heritage building for last three years, around 60 percent of the total work has so far been completed.
“Materials required for seismic retrofitting are being brought from other states, which is time consuming. Besides the work could not be done in full swing as the building continued in use as Legislative Assembly. In fact, the work actually was started after shifting of Assembly to new location”, said a Manager of the company who is supervising the work.
He said, “Such reconstruction drive is not easy enough for people engaged in the work. The workers are working in a hostile situation”.
According to him, the seismic retrofitting system will prevent the heritage structure from strikes that may hit the palace in any devastating earthquake.
The government had allotted one year for the total project but it may take one more year to get the work completed, he said.
However, Chief Minister Manik Sarkar who visited the Ujjanyta Palace to review the work progress has asked the implementing agency to expedite the seismic retrofitting work.
The state government has received an amount of Rs 5.61 crores from the Union Tourism Ministry for the renovation project, In order to save the heritage building from possible danger; a Bangalore Indo – Swiss Construction Company – BBR has been assigned for the total reconstruction (seismic retrofitting) of the Palace.
It is mentionable here that the palace was built by Maharaja Radhakishorepur Manikya Bahadur at a cost of Rs 10 lakh at the heart of Agartala.
The famous Martin and Burn Company was the designer of the heritage building. The company turned the palace into one of the most gorgeous royal fortress of state royal family. Sources claimed, while constructing the palace, architects were very much careful about future protection of the mammoth and splendid structure. But they could not add tremor – resistance structure.
A devastating earthquake, which had struck the capital in year 1897, had caused substantial damage to the palace. After such incident, there was no news of renovation that took place for this palace.