The house of Subhas Chandra Bose’s father Janakinath Bose in Puri. Picture by Sarat Patra

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 17: Memories of revered leader Subhas Chandra Bose will shortly come alive in beach town Puri as the freedom fighter’s ancestral house there is all set to get a facelift.

The state department of culture has plans to transform the almost century-old house into a museum dedicated to the Cuttack-born national leader.

The house situated at Mati Mandap Sahi of the pilgrim town was built by Subhash’s father Janakinath Bose in 1916, said Puri district cultural officer Prafulla Samantaray.

“Janakinath Bose had applied to the then collector of Puri for this land on lease basis that was to be renewed once every 30 years. He was granted the lease and after he passed away in 1938, his relatives often came down to the house during vacations and also continued renewing the lease,” said Samantaray.

The lease was updated according to rules in both 1946 and 1976. In 1997, however, the family’s descendants demanded a permanent patta for the bungalow. This had sparked off a legal dispute between the district collector’s office and the heirs of the Bose family.

The dispute was resolved this February in favour of the collector.

“The collector asked the descendants to retain Netaji’s name on the lease or provide the death certificate of Janakinath Bose to renew the lease in their name. The matter was pending for years until the revenue divisional commissioner decided in this February that the state government would pay money spent on building the house to the Bose family and the collector will take possession of the land,” said Samantaray.

On July 27, the state culture department took possession of the structure from the tehsildar.

Recently, culture minister Maheswar Mohanty and a team of the culture department officers visited the bungalow.

The monument is spread across almost half an acre of land. The giant structure, however, has lost its sheen over the years and most of it lies in debris. Not many elements in the building appear to have any antiquity value and many portions have been modernized. The house bears a marble nameplate of Brajendranath Bose and Supriya Bose, members of the Bose family.

Freedom fighters say that Subhash Bose had conducted some secret meetings of his Forward Bloc in this house. The 94-year-old revolutionary freedom fighter from Puri, Chandrasekhar Naik, said he had seen Netaji paying visits to the Puri house.

The state culture department has allotted Rs 5 crore to transform the building into a museum.

“We are planning to include Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage in the project. The building needs restoration first,” said culture secretary Santosh Sarangi.

The department is also considering to include historians and caretakers from the Netaji Subhas Bose Museum in Cuttack to identify the objects belonging to Subhash Bose and his forefathers lying at the Puri house.