Smart City Corp to repair, restore Gandhi Bhawan

Kanpur: Gandhi Bhawan (also known as King Edward Memorial KEM Hall), located in the heart of the city, is a prominent historical building which has witnessed almost a century of transition of the city.
Smart City Corporation has decided to repair and restore the building and make it a “centre of attraction” of Kanpur by providing several public facilities.
Sources informed that due to Covid lockdown and curfew, the preliminary discussions on the proposal got delayed by almost six months.
In order to speed up the project, the Smart City Corporation on Tuesday held a preliminary meeting, and also organised a site visit of the historical site.
The divisional commissioner, district magistrate, municipal commissioner, additional municipal commissioner and officials of the Smart City Corporation attended the meeting, and had also visited the site.
Commissioner Raj Shekhar informed that repair and restoration work would be taken up by the Smart City by its funds and would also undertake its maintenance for five years.
“As per the preliminary discussions, the place will have 5 different public facilities like museum, art gallery, library, ball room and exhibition area,” he said
Also, additional facilities like cafeteria, toilets, audio visual play area, kids area etc would also be created there for facilitating the visitors and guests, he added.
To promote art and culture of UP and Kanpur in particular, the famous wooden “Ball Room” would be restored and will be put in use. “To make it a centre of attraction, and also to showcase the grand heritage and the history of India, UP and Kanpur in particular, “building projection” with sound is also proposed and discussed,” the commissioner said.
The famous “4 Face Clock” at the centre of the building would also be repaired and restored, sources further said.
The Smart City would first hire a consultant for preparation of the project and then would go for open tender for the work, the sources added.
“Once a tender is awarded, it will take almost 12 months (1 year) to complete the project. A total 15-16 months are required for its full repair and restoration,” informed a senior district official.
A consultant would be hired by August end who is expected to prepare the preliminary report by September 2021 end, and the Smart City Board to give its approval to the project by October end. Likewise, work of awarding tender is likely to be completed by December end, and the work will start on the project by January 2022 and likely to be completed by December 2022, the official further said.