Bothering heights: Green Visva-Bharati turns grey - Real Estate India

??|?? January 1, 2013 ?? 09:43am ??|Contributed by manoja

SANTINIKETAN: Those who have visited Visva-Bharati campus hardly two years ago would not be able to identify some of the places because of the sudden appearance of highrise buildings and odd-looking boundary walls.

A couple of years ago when the university authorities wanted to construct boundary walls around the central administrative office, the move was criticized by a section of intellectuals.

The walls were then designed by an architect who had extensive research works on the buildings of Santiniketan. But the boundary walls constructed recently in Santiniketan look like that of jails or factories. At present, as many as six highrise buildings are being constructed on the campus.

Two age-old gardens have been razed to make way for the construction. Huge vacant spaces too are lost. The authorities, however, claimed that these buildings are necessary for the growth and development of the centre of learning.

Arunendu Banerjee, a Kolkata-based architect who had provided consultancy in a number of projects in Visva Bharti and Rabindra Bharati earlier and is still engaged in the restoration works of many other historical places, said: ?If more buildings are required in Visva Bharati, the campus needs be extended. Considering the area, the campus now have, more constructions will only increase the density of buildings and hit the balance of nature. On Visva Bharati campus everything should be constructed keeping in mind the greeneries. When I had designed the Rathindra Guest House, I tried my best to maintain the look of Udyanbari and other old buildings?

According to him, the cultural continuity of Visva Bharati must be reflected in the construction works on the campus.

Manimukut Mitra, the former registrar and currently a director of Visva Bharati official said: ?No new construction has been done in the core ashram area. In that area, we have to go for some construction to accommodate the increasing number of students and new departments. Right now, the number of students in various departments is around eight thousand. If we want to make Visva Bharati a complete residential institution, as desired by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, we need more hostel buildings.

The decision to construct these buildings was taken earlier. The university authority has adopted a resolution that for new buildings, the sprawling vacant space near Sriniketan campus can be utilized in future.?

According to him, the authorities are trying their best to make the buildings, coming up on the main campus, more eco-friendly.

?There was no such rule, but it was a convention that no construction on Visva Bharati campus will cross the height of Santiniketanbari, the first building constructed by Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, the father of Rabindranath and founder of Santiniketan Bramha Ashram. But the buildings, which are being constructed on the campus now, neither follow that convention nor look like the other buildings in Santiniketan. Those are more like common office buildings. Two gardens ? one adjacent to the central library and another in Nippon Bhavan ? have been razed,? said an ashramik.?These buildings are monstrous,? feels painter and former teacher of Visva Bharati, Kala Bhavan, Jogen Chowdhury. According to him, the green environment of Visva Bharati is taking a hit day-by-day. ?The problem is that the authority has the power to do whatever they want to. They neither care for our opinion nor for any aesthetic sense. When some of those buildings were planned, I opposed but none was bothered. There should be a permanent committee for the planning and construction works,? he said.

Otherwise according to the change in the chair of vice-chancellors more and more such buildings would be constricted indiscriminately,? he said. Chowdhury thought that the reasoning of so called expansion and development of university should not be an excuse for indiscriminate construction in the campus.

Veteran Rabindrasangeet singer and former teacher of Sangeet Bhavan, Gora Sarbadhikari, said: ?Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore had himself told that no building should cover the trees. We had met the governor and wrote to the Prime Minister to stop the indiscriminate construction of boundary walls around the campus.?

We even fought in the court of law but we could not do anything against the powerful university authority,? lamented Sarbadhikari.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Bothering-heights-Green-Visva-Bharati-turns-grey/articleshow/17826134.cms

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