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Project to resurrect Kolkata Silver Mint

Raktima Bose

Union Finance Ministry and Municipal Corporation have taken up the scheme

Mint museum, Indology centre coming up
Archive and centre for Indian cultural studies to be set up

— Photo: Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury.

FOR BETTER TIMES: The Kolkata Silver Mint, which has a Grecian temple structure, awaits a new lease of life.

KOLKATA: The Union Finance Ministry has taken up a Rs. 148.47-crore adaptive reuse project along with the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to restore one of the oldest mints in the country.

Set up in 1824 and spread over 12.5 acres, the Kolkata Silver Mint has been lying in neglect since 1952 when production ceased.

With branches sprouting from the roof and plaster peeling off the walls, the Doric columns stand mute witnesses to a once-upon-a-time glorious past when around 3,00,000 to 6,00,000 silver coins were manufactured daily. Coins in gold, copper and bronze were also made here. Besides, there were facilities for manufacturing medals.

All this is to change now. To come up on the premises will be a mint museum, an Indology centre, a heritage hotel and a retail-edutainment corner.

Governor’s interest

West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, along with the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) has taken special interest in the resurrection of the 180-year-old building, which now acts as a storehouse of old machinery and houses a battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

There are eight structures in the compound and each has been earmarked for a new role. The Silver Mint, the façade of which was modelled on the Temple of Minerva in Athens, will house the museum that will showcase artefacts such as coins, notes, machinery and medals.

An archive and a centre for Indian cultural studies are to be set up at the mint master’s quarters.

The copper mint will house a convention centre and the CRPF quarters a retail-edutainment- performing arts centre.

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

INTACH report

“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.

The KMC’s Heritage Committee has given its nod for the project that is expected to be finished before the Commonwealth Games 2010.

Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited (IL&FS), appointed by the Finance Ministry, has drawn up a detailed plan for the restoration process.

“We are trying for compatible development - leaving untouched as much of the old structure as possible in the process of re-doing the place,” said an IL&FS official.

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