This proposed hotel is talk of the town: Place once housed famous inn with garden made by Jehanara

NEW DELHI: If things go as per plan, you would soon be able to experience the full glory of Shahjahanabad by staying in a plush hotel right in the middle of Chandni Chowk. North corporation is planning to lease out its famous heritage property to a private agency to redevelop it. The proposal, to be put up before the standing committee at its June 27 meeting, includes development of a hotel, library, museum and a recreational centre for children at the site.
A senior official overseeing the project said the proposal was likely to be approved on Wednesday and, subsequently, a tender would be floated. The civic body has proposed a monthly licence fee of Rs 1.92 crore and a lease period of 33 years. The place where the Town Hall stands today once housed a famous inn with a garden. The garden was made by Shah Jahan’s daughter, Jehanara. The inn catered to VIPs and wealthy Persian traders. The area was known as Sahibabad, or Begum Bagh, at that time. The construction of the present building started in 1860 and was completed in 1863.


Authors Gaynor Barton and Laurraine Malone in their book, “Old Delhi, 10 Easy Walks”, describe how the building was initially known as “Lawrence Institute and housed Delhi College of Higher Studies, before it was bought by the then municipality for 135,457 ($2,000) in 1866. Besides government offices, the building had a library and a European club”. Originally, a bronze statue of Queen Victoria stood in front of the hall. After Independence in 1947, it was replaced by a statue of Arya Samaj leader Swami Shraddhanand.

Ever since the erstwhile MCD shifted its headquarters to the swanky Civic Centre on Jawaharlal Nehru Marg in 2010, the building has been lying vacant.

Veena Vermani, standing committee chairman of north corporation, said she inspected the site on Monday and unless objections were raised at the June 27 meeting, the redevelopment plan should get the green signal. “The proposal was prepared in 2013 and submitted to the Centre for fund disbursal, which, however, didn’t materialise. North corporation has now decided to float the tender under the PPP mode to redevelop the heritage property. The basic structure will not be changed as it holds emotional value for the people of Delhi,” she said.

“The total area under the possession of north corporation is 13,735 sqm, all of which is open for re-development. Broadly, it can be divided into three sections — main building, courtyard and press building. Since the building uses construction material from the mid-colonial era, it requires structural strengthening and refurbishing,” the official said.

In 2012, the last commissioner of the unified corporation, K S Mehra, had proposed a similar plan to develop the Town Hall as a centre of cultural heritage. In 2013, north corporation submitted the proposal but the change of government at Centre meant that it never saw the light of the day.