Heritage manholes of Chandigarh to be displayed

| | Chandigarh
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Heritage manholes of Chandigarh to be displayed

Thursday, 20 February 2020 | Nishu Mahajan | Chandigarh

The heritage manhole covers of the City Beautiful will be showcased at the upcoming museum in Government Printing Press, Sector 18 here. For, the Chandigarh Administration has directed the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh to replace the heritage manhole covers with concrete ones at the earliest and retrieve the heritage ones for preservation.

The city is stated to have around 2,224 cast iron manhole covers bearing an impression of Chandigarh map, which were designed by Franco-Swiss architect Le Corbusier in 1950s.

A survey conducted by UT Administration and the civic body in 2017 had revealed that the number of heritage drain covers in the city is nearly 2224. Such manhole covers were found in the premises of government schools, police stations, Secretariat buildings and other government buildings.

The highest number of 78 manhole covers was found in Sector 20 here while 77 heritage manhole covers were found in Sector 8 and 76 in Sector 35.

In the past, the higher authorities, while preparing heritage inventory in 2011 had stated that the number of heritage manhole covers across the city is nearly 2500.

Notably, Paris based auction house Artcurial had auctioned a city’s manhole cover for 17,851 Euros (Rs 10.87 lakh) in 2010 while in 2007, another manhole cover bearing the master plan of Chandigarh designed by Corbusier had fetched a whopping USD 21,000 (Rs 830,000) at a Christie’s auction in New York.

In the past few years, there has been a spate of theft of heritage manhole covers with one reportedly stolen from Sector 22, only few months back.

UT Adviser Manoj Parida said that the UT Administration has already directed the MCC to replace those heritage manhole covers, which are at the risk of theft due to location. These would be replaced with concrete ones, he said.

The civic body had recently also passed the proposal of replacing all the heritage manholes in the city.

Parida said while some of the heritage manholes would be displayed at the upcoming museum in Government Printing Press, Sector 18 here, others would be kept in store. 

Apart from manholes, heritage chairs and other furniture will also be kept inside the museum, he added.

Following the auction of heritage manhole covers, the replica cum miniature model of the heritage models was launched at the souvenir shops depicting Le Corbusier’s innovative work in Chandigarh. The miniature model available in four sizes including 4 inch, 6 inch, 8 inch and 10-12 inch at the souvenir shops is quite famous among visitors.

Ajay Jagga, a city based lawyer and member of Heritage Protection Cell, said there is a need to protect the heritage manholes across the city.

In the cases of theft of such manholes, no FIRs were registered for investigation and the heritage items are still being smuggled and supplied from Chandigarh to foreign auction houses, he added.

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