NEW DELHI: North Delhi Municipal Corporation has set the first week of March as the deadline for completing the restoration work at the city’s oldest library — Hardayal Municipal Public Library — at Chandni Chowk.
The revamped library may be inaugurated in mid-March. Though the project was announced in September 2019, work on the renovation started as late as June 2020.
“The restoration had been planned long back, but due to one reason or the other, it kept getting delayed. The books are very old here and we can’t move them easily. In February, three rooms were earmarked in the Town Hall for shifting books, but that couldn’t happen. Finally we decided to keep all the books on one side of the library, and carry out repair work on the other end,” said Rekha Sinha, local councillor and member-secretary of the library.
According to the councillor, around 65% of the restoration work has been completed. “North corporation mayor visited the library recently and he was told that work would be completed by the first week of March. After the inauguration in March, staff can continue to sit. Though Delhi government has issued an order for opening libraries from February 1, we will not be able to allow visitors till February end due to ongoing renovation work,” Sinha added.
Hardayal Municipal Public Library was set up in 1862 when it was a part of Lawrence Institute, named after the then Viceroy of India. It currently has a collection of over 1.7 lakh books, of which 8,000 are rare manuscripts that need to be digitised.
“We are taking all precautions during the repair work and making sure that the original heritage appeal is not affected. The interior design will be changed, but the outer structure and architecture will not be altered with,” an official said.
Meanwhile, the process for preservation and digitisation of books, especially around 350 handwritten books, has started. The municipality has asked a team from Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts to continue the preservation and digitisation of books at the library as work at the conference hall is completed.