After getting the permission from the Heritage Committee, the district administration has started restoration work of band stand at Kasturchand Park. The Public Works Department (PWD) has been tasked with the work by the District Collector after allotment of Rs 5 cr from the District Planning Committee (DPC). About five years ago, Judges of High Court had visited the sites facing problems to know what exactly the Government had done there. It’s a rare occurence when High Court judges visit such sites. The then Justice R K Deshpande and Justice Pushpa Ganediwala of Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court visited the Kasturchand Park (KP) to check whether the administration had taken any measures to restore the glory of this historical site as was mentioned in its affidavit. But the sorry state of affair that they observed compelled them to express displeasure. Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court had taken suo motu cognisance of report published in ‘The Hitavada’ about the plight of this Grade-I heritage site. The sandstone made structure was gathering dust.

 

“After the High Court order, we needed to seek permission from Heritage Committee. Once we got that permission, we immediately sanctioned the required money from the DPC and handed over the work to PWD. For the last two months, cleaning and repairing work is going on. The Heritage Committee has asked us to take care that its originality should be maintained. Accordingly, PWD is doing that work,” said Dr Vipin Itankar. PWD has been asked to complete the work in nine months. It includes, cleaning, beautification and repairing fountain there. PWD has brought artisans from Uttar Pradesh. The works include scraping, washing, chemical treatment.

 

Heritage Committee has asked PWD not to use cement as it needed to be conserved as per the norms of Archeological Survey of India (ASI). PWD submitted an affidavit wherein it gave a detailed information about how the restoration work would go. In recent years, the ground witnessed a lot of infrastructural work including the construction of a metro station with construction material lying on the ground, construction of walking track right in the middle of the ground that devastated the beauty of the ground. The historic bandstand is in a very sorry condition. Some part of the roof was collapsed and was not repaired. This site is ignored completely. Sans security, the antisocial elements did the further mess.