The Syndicate Hall and the Darbhanga Hall on the College Street campus of Calcutta University have a fresh look with photographs and paintings restored and re-arranged.
The Syndicate Hall is lined with black-and-white photographs of the university’s chancellors, while the Darbhanga Hall is now adorned with restored oil paint portraits of significant personalities.
The Syndicate Hall (after) Pradip Sanyal
The furniture, too, have been repaired and a lot of old furniture from the university’s godown have been polished and displayed in the two halls.
This is part of an ongoing Rs 3-crore restoration and repair project on the College Street campus.
Apart from Darbhanga Building, which houses the Syndicate Hall and the Darbhanga Hall, Hardinge Building, Asutosh Building and Centenary Building have all been repaired and painted.
The Darbhanga Hall (before) Pradip Sanyal
Toilets and teachers’ rooms have been revamped, lifts installed and the outer walls painted. The entire flooring of Asutosh Museum will wear a new look.
The two gates of the university will be repaired, too, and landscaping done inside.
The Syndicate Hall is now used for online meetings and video conferences.
“Earlier, the Syndicate Room was dark and filled with old almirahs. The portraits in the Darbhanga Hall were full of dust and covered with green cloth and would hang crooked...,” said Sonali Chakravarti Banerjee, vice-chancellor of CU, who had applied for funds for the renovation from the UGC when she was pro-vice-chancellor, finance.
The Darbhanga Hall (after) Pradip Sanyal
“I had seen what an excellent restoration was done of the University of Mumbai and thought we should do it, too. The UGC approved the funds under the University Potential Excellence (UPE) grant. The civic restoration has been done by the PWD, while the paintings have been restored by artist Suvaprasanna and his team,” said the VC.
The portraits in the Darbhanga Hall were all donated to the university.
“The latest was a portrait of Babu Jagjivan Ram, which was donated by his daughter Meira Kumar,” said Chakravarti Banerjee.
Besides, there are portraits of Asutosh Muherjee done by Atul Bose and Gandhi’s portrait by Chintamoni Kar. There are 22 portraits in the hall.
The Darbhanga Hall’s annexe rooms have been renovated, too. A couple of old iron chests of W. Marr & Son have been repaired and displayed along with old furniture and a marble-topped table.
The civic restoration included structural retrofitting, redistribution and segregation of load components, integrating the fire-fighting system and installation of lifts.
“The record room, the PhD room that had a lot of load and were housed on the upper floors of Darbhanga Building had to be shifted...,” said Kanakendu Sinha, superintending engineer of the Presidency Circle of the PWD, who was part of the team renovating the buildings on the College Street campus.
The restoration of the campus started in 2017 and is still on.