Kolkata, Sep 21 (PTI) The West Bengal government is expediting renovation work at Writers’ Buildings, the seat of power in the state for decades till 2013, with the offices of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and five other ministers expected to be ready before October 10, a senior official said on Monday.
Work on the chief minister’s secretariat has already been completed, while renovation is in full swing at the offices of the chief secretary, the DGP, ministers and other senior bureaucrats, he said.
“The offices include those for Adhikari, Dilip Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul, Shankar Ghosh and Sharadwat Mukherjee,” the PWD official told PTI.
Public Works Department (PWD) and Public Health Engineering (PHE) Minister Ajay Poddar recently held a meeting with officials to review progress of the renovation at Writers’ Buildings and directed them to complete the remaining work at the earliest, he said.
There is also a proposal to entrust the Adani Group with some of the remaining revovation of the entire Writers’ Buildings, though nothing has been finalised in this regard, the official said.
The administrative offices were shifted from the Writers’ Buildings to ‘Nabanna’ in 2013 during the tenure of former chief minister Mamata Banerjee, as the British-era building required extensive renovation.
After the BJP came to power in West Bengal, the party made it clear that it wanted the administration to function from the Writers’ Buildings.
However, as renovation work is yet to be completed, Adhikari and other ministers continue to operate from ‘Nabanna’.
The nearly 250-year-old Writer’s Buildings has been witness to an armed raid by freedom fighters during the British period and governance by chief ministers mainly from the Congress and CPI(M). PTI SCH RBT
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