Mysore/Mysuru: The dilapidated Lansdowne Building and Devaraja Market have found its place in the list of must-visit tourist spots in Mysuru.
While a portion of the century-old Lansdowne Building caved in August 2012 claiming four lives, the northern side entrance of the heritage Devaraja Market collapsed in August 2016. Luckily none was injured in this mishap.
Since then not an inch has changed even as the Governments changed. The State Government had released funds for the renovation of Lansdowne building but the works failed to take off following the dual stand of experts. While some argued that the whole Lansdowne building must be demolished to build a new structure on the same style, the heritage-lovers contended that it was possible to renovate it without its demolition. Now, the matter was pending before High Court. The money released by the Government was with the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC).
A similar fate was haunting Devaraja Market with two varied opinions. Mere visits by the Ministers, elected representatives or the officers do not help unless they arrive at a consensus.
Your title of the article is most appropriate. Devaraj Market and Lansdowne are two “attractive” tourist sites for politicians visiting Mysuru. It gives an opportunity for these all knowing expert politicians to sing the same song with the same raga to demolish and construct these two heritage sites of the city.
It is a pity that we in our city do not value experts. This is because when our politicians claim that they are experts about construction of heritage sites, about complex topic of water supply, or handling sewage or preserving Mysuru’s iconic Chamundi Hills or even to manage K R Hospital to develop Mysuru Mater Plan, how can we have any confidence in experts? How can we distinguish between “real experts ( even when they are professors at IITs)” and pseudo experts like these politicians?
If only we had competent, honest and concerned leadership, these problems could have been solved.
A few thoughts on the redevelopment of Devaraja Market and Lansdowne Building
1. THIS IS A ONCE IN LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY AND WE MUST GET IT RIGHT. Too good to be wasted. We can not make decisions that we regret later and future generations will hate us for getting things wrong.
2. There are many different ways of preserving and conserving our heritage. A good team of Architects and Urban designers, Historians and Engineers can get together and develop a solution for replacing the old structure with a brand new one (6 storied one with basement parking and provision for underground integrated public transport metro station) while upholding/representing the true spirit behind each component of the old building. In my opinion, mindlessly reproducing the Indo-Sarcentic arches and the balusters everywhere is a cheap imitation, poor heritage conservation outcome, lacking creative ideas and an evidence of inability to think independently. It can soon get boring. You see mindless copy of the arches everywhere a sort of proliferation of an over used concept.
3. IMHO the core theme of the Devaraja Market is, how it catered to the needs of the community to suit the lifestyle at the time it was constructed. The organisation of various departments e.g. fruits, vegetables, flowers, groceries, non perishables, pooja items, utensils, book stores, iconic Guru Sweetmart and the more upmarket shopfronts facing Sayyaji Rao Road, Dhanvantari Road……so on and so forth. How this great sheltered market place was designed for a smooth flow and operation and interaction of the community is a more critical concept that should guide and drive our future plans, be it material handling or bulk material arrival, retail display, disposal of waste. The same features/iconic characteristics can and must carefully be reproduced in the new building (say 6 storied building with one level underground) with a much larger capacity to cater to the future growing needs of Mysurians.
4. That is the kind of foresight and planning the legendary Maharaja of ideal kingdom of Mysuru, Sri Nalvadi Krisharaja Wodeyar and Dewan of Mysuru Sir M V envisioned and implemented in those days. We would have miserably failed, if we do not follow their example and guidelines. That is what I consider better Heritage Conservation i.e. Heritage Conservation of the SPIRIT OF GREAT VISIONARIES who built the beautiful city of Mysuru that was always futuristic, creating practical and functional assets of visual beauty with lasting value, serving community needs without costing an arm and a leg for maintenance, without endangering the safety and lives of occupants.
5. It will be paying tribute to our beloved erstwhile Maharaja of Mysore Sri Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar and the legendary architect/engineer/visionary Sir MV, if only we can conceive, develop and build a great piece of infrastructure in the heart of the city to meet the current and future needs of Mysuru in the next 100 years.
6. Most importantly, the responsibility of design must be entrusted to the best team of architects+urban designers+historians and the engineering and construction must be entrusted to the best consulting and contracting firms with proven record with a true national spirit. NO ROOM FOR CORRUPTION PLEASE. BEG WITH FOLDED ARMS TO SPARE THIS UNIQUE PIECE OF INFRASTRUCTURE FROM CORRUPT PRACTICES. …. pretty please!
@Prasad,
Your comments are indeed thought-provoking. However, no amount of begging will spare the involvement of politicians. And you know what it means to have politicians in the midst of architects/urban designers/historians and engineers!