Town Hall to be a tourist attraction

Tribune News Service
Shimla, September 6

The century-old iconic Town Hall building on The Mall will only house the offices of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor as the High Court today ordered that a high-end café, reading centre and handicraft boutique may be set up in the building.

The issue of handing over the British era building, which had been restored under an exhaustive Rs 6 crore conservation project, back to the SMC was settled by the court on a PIL writ, filed earlier. A Division Bench comprising of Chief Justice V Ramasubramaniam and Justice Anoop Chitkara passed the order. But the building would be put to other uses and not house any office other than the Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

The order also spelt out steps to turn it into a place of tourist and locals interest. “The MC may be permitted to have the offices of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor in the Town Hall. The offices of the Commissioner or his deputies need not be located in it,” the order read. The MC Commissioner, Joint Commissioner and other officials, whose offices were located here, will now have to be accommodated elsewhere.

Town Hall was restored under a conservation project under the Asian Development Bank (ADB) project executed by the Tourism Department. After completion of the work, the SMC had sought the building whereas there was a demand from civil society and citizens that it must be developed as a tourist attraction, considering its vantage location on The Mall in the heart of the town. The court also directed that the MC, in consultation with the government, may put to use the rest of the area for having a high-end café with reading facilities, information centre and a boutique of traditional arts and crafts. The court also directed that an entry fee could be imposed which will provide a handsome revenue to the MC. The court also observed that beyond issuing a direction to the SMC to protect the heritage value of Town Hall, it could not issue directions which would infringe upon the MC property rights.

Its historic importance

The imposing structure is made in Gothic style, using stone and timber with slanting slate roof and big glass windows. It was designed by Scottish architect James Ransome as New Library and Offices. It has a fair amount of European character and most of its rooms have a fireplace. However, it was in a dilapidated condition with the wood work decaying before conservation. The original building, designed as a library, was built in 1908.