The Darjeeling Municipality building. Picture by Suman Tamang

Darjeeling, April 16: The 158-year-old Darjeeling Municipality building and Municipal Boy’s High School have been declared heritage properties by the West Bengal Heritage Commission.

Pemba Tshering Ola, the chairman of the civic body, said the commission also sanctioned Rs 53 lakh for the renovation of the two structures. “While Rs 37 lakh will be for the refurbishment of the municipal building, the rest will be spent on repairing the school,” said Ola.

The civic body is getting ready to float tenders for the renovation of the buildings, which are made of stones, so that the work can start in a couple of months.

The municipality building had been partially destroyed in a fire in 1995. However, the structure was restored to the original form after late Shasheesh Prasad, an architect in the town, had come forward to repair it free of cost.

A couple of years ago, the Rotary Club of Darjeeling had collected funds from the public to renovate the clock tower of the municipality.

The Municipal Boy’s High School, which was founded in 1910 near the Darjeeling Motor Stand, was shifted to Landela Road in 1922. The funds come at a time when the building is in need of immediate repair.

Apart from the refurbishment of the two buildings, the municipality has decided to take a few other steps to bring back the “charm of old Darjeeling”.

“We will request all the traders from Darjeeling Railway station to Chowrastha to plant at least two saplings in front of their shops within a week,” said Tenzing Khambachey, the councillor in charge of the conservancy department.

The civic body has also requested all hotels to stop dumping garbage in the containers kept along roads. Instead, the municipal vans would come to collect the waste piled up in hotels,” said Khambachey.

The municipality will continue to be firm in ensuring that the ban on plastic is enforced completely and has even sought the help of police. A meeting was recently held with the district police chief.