Mint
Makeover

After remaining in neglect for over 60 years, the Old Silver Mint of Kolkata is all set to be resurrected as a currency and coins museum and an ‘edutainment centre’. Subhrangshu Gupta traces the history of the grand Grecian structure

THERE stands on the Strand, facing the Hooghly, an old and yellowish dilapidated building, with its imposing frontage designed as a replica of the Temple of Minerva in Athens.

Kolkata’s Old Silver Mint, a landmark that has seen the city change dramatically over the past 184 years, is a crumbling symbol of the city’s rich heritage. The peeling plaster of the walls and wild growth of plants fail to veil the grandeur of the Doric columns of the mint.

Giving company to this grand structure is the historic Tagore Castle at Pathuriaghata, which was built by Darpanarayn Tagore, great grandfather of Nobel Laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore. Jorasanko’s Thakurbari is also located in the vicinity.

In the early 1800s, this area used to be bustling with commercial activities of street vendors and traders.

In those days, Tagore Castle, Jorasanko’s Thakurbari and at some little distance Sovabazar Rajbari — all located on the embankment of the Hooghly — attracted a great deal of public
interest.

But nowadays, except Jorasanko, which is the birthplace of Tagore, all other places of importance in the city, including Tagore Castle and the mint, are in bad shape because of years of neglect. Because of want of proper maintenance, the mint has, for over decades, stood silently as a haunted house in the busy commercial area in Burrabazar.

It is said that Raja Nabakrishna Chowdhury at Sovabazar, Prince Dwarakanath Tagore at Jorasanko and Raja Prasanna Thakur at Pathuriaghata — the three outstanding personalities of Bengali renaissance — had played a pioneering role in the establishment of the Old Silver Mint in the business area.

The mint was of great importance since it was the only one that was producing silver coins, which were in circulation at that time. As many as 3,00,000 to 6,00,000 silver coins were manufactured here daily. Gold, copper and bronze coins were also made here, and the facility for manufacturing medals was also available.

The old yellowish Grecian structure that was once the old mint complex of Kolkata, was built on an area of 12.5 acres. Its foundation stone was laid in March, 1824, and it became operational from August 1, 1829. Silver coins were minted here till 1952 and, thereafter, it was functioning as a silver refinery. But that, too, ceased to function in 1972, and the silver reserves from here were transferred to a new mint at Taratola in 1985.

Since then, the old Kolkata mint has remained closed, and the buildings remained neglected and uncared for. It now acts as a storehouse of old machinery and houses a battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

However, it was not the first mint built in Calcutta. Official records reveal that there were two other mints in operation in Calcutta before this one. One of these had been constructed in 1759 and its exact site is not known, and the other was built in 1790 with a modern machine brought from England at the site of Gillet Ship buildings establishment, which was taken over by the Stamp and Stationary Committee in 1833.

Both these mints had, for some time, produced silver coins with the mint name of the Nawab of Murshidabad. These two mints now no longer exist, and no remnants of these are left behind.

However, of late, attention has been drawn on the preservation and proper maintenance of all these historical landmarks and other monuments in Kolkata, and the Centre as well as the state government have come forward in preserving them not only for their historical importance, but also in the interest of the promotion of tourism, and for the city's beautification.

West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, along with the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) had taken special interest in the resurrection of the 184-year-old building.

"INTACH had prepared a project report on restoring and renovating the national property back in 1987, much before the KMC gave it a heritage status," said G.M.Kapur, convener of INTACH, Kolkata and West Bengal.

As a first step in the fulfilment of this objective of preserving these heritage precincts and the adjoining area, a decision was taken to develop the mint, which is now a heritage site, into a museum along with the development of the area for tourism under a public-private partnership (PPP).

The aim is to protect and preserve the grand colonial mint structure through an integrated approach by combining architectural conservation and adaptive re-use.

Accordingly, a Rs 147 crore project has been cleared. It will be completed by September, 2011.

A consortium of firms by D & F Consortium Group INC of the US was identified as the private sector partner for implementing the project under the PPP format.

The project has been prepared in such a manner that not only will it restore the heritage building and create an enabling structure around it, but it will also ensure long-term operation and maintenance. It also aims at developing the tourism potential of the heritage structure in Kolkata, while retaining the currency and coins museum as the main attraction for tourists.

Kolkata Municipal Commissioner Alapan Bandopadhyya says the mint's imposing facade will be retained in the newly constructed museum premises, which will include a large gallery space, workshop, copper mint, silver mint and a mini-commercial hub in the vicinity with provision for an underground parking zone. According to the plan, the museum will have two broad-based departments — Parcel A and Parcel B in the areas comprising 40,690 sqm and 16,739 sqm, respectively. The construction cost will be Rs 10,172 lakh and Rs 3,109 lakh. In addition to that a sum of Rs 1,006 lakh will be spent on the engineering designing.

A heritage hotel will come up at the Red Building and the Yellow Building — joined together by a footbridge. A banquet hall and an ethnic food court are also planned at the site of the erstwhile warehouse.

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