Guwahati, July 18: Dispur has asked the PWD to make necessary architectural changes in its plan of constructing a modern hostel on the Cotton College campus.
An Assam government official said the instruction had been given with an aim to preserve the heritage and memory associated with the existing buildings of Swahid Ranjit Borpujari and Anundo Ram Barooah hostels. He said the education department has asked the PWD to design the modern building in sync with the existing hostel buildings.
The state government last year released Rs 10 crore to construct a modern hostel in the line of top institutions like IITs and IIMs by dismantling the existing buildings of SRB and ARB hostels.
The project hit a roadblock because of opposition from different quarters against demolition of the old hostel buildings as many prominent personalities, including music maestro Bhupen Hazarika, stayed there.
Chief minister Tarun Gogoi last week ordered that status quo be maintained regarding the old buildings.
“The government has been asked to construct and design the roof of the new hostel building similar to the existing SRB and ARB hostel buildings. The martyr column of the old SRB hostel will not be destroyed and will be installed at the new building. Plans are there to create a separate memory balcony at the new hostel building which will highlight the past memories of SRB and ARB hostels by various ways, adorned by photographs of prominent boarders like Hazarika and Chandrayaan I principal scientist Jitendranath Goswami,” the official said.
According to the official, execution of the project has already got delayed inordinately and the government wants to start at the earliest. The principal of Cotton College, Indra Kumar Bhattacharyya, said there is no alternative to construction of a modern hostel for safe and comfortable stay of Cottonians. “Old heritage will reside in the new building. If anyone is a well-wisher of Cotton College, he or she should not protest against the construction now,” he said.
The Cotton College Union Society has set August 15 as the deadline to end the controversy over construction of the hostel.
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