Sambalpur: Divey Gupta, head of architectural conservation, Indian Trust for Arts, Culture and Heritage (INTACH), New Delhi, visited Bezbaruah house here Thursday morning and conducted a field study of the heritage site. He also examined the pilot copy of the detailed project report (DPR) and studied the heritage houses from different angles.
Head of conservation, INTACH, Odisha state chapter, Mallika Mitra, who prepared the draft copy of DPR was also present. She had a detailed discussion with Gupta about the proposed conservation project of that heritage house. The Bezbaruah house is situated at the Traffic Rotary, whose construction and expansion of the Chowk has already started. The upcoming second bridge on River Mahanadi is located just at the rear side of the heritage house.
District administration sources disclosed that construction of Traffic Rotary is going to be completed soon as it is scheduled to be inaugurated by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on March 31, 2018. On the very day the CM is likely to lay foundation for conservation work of Bezbaruah houses and work will begin from that day.
INTACH officials also visited the Victoria Town Hall and Queen’s Palace, where Sambalpur chapter of INTACH has taken up conservation work. They also visited the King’s Palace where partial work is almost completed. Conservation work of this palace will be taken up by INTACH after the completion of ongoing project work as per the source. The visiting team along with the office bearers of the Sambalpur chapter of INTACH, met collector Samarth Verma at his office and discussed the project’s progress.
Convenor of the Sambalpur chapter of INTACH Tarini Panda, joint convenor Sashanka Purohit, resource person of the local chapter and convenor of Laxminath Bezbaruah Memorial Committee Deepak Kumar Panda were also present at the official discussion.