Currency Building to get affected due to East-West Metro construction: IIT Kharagpur

IIT Kharagpur has raised some questions over the construction of East-West Metro’s alignment going near the 183-year-old Currency Building which now houses the office of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

The experts of IIT have raised questions that construction of the underground Metro might affect the 183-year-old Currency Building. In the Railway Budget, Railway minister Suresh Prabhu had assured that East-West Metro’s first phase will be completed by 2017 end.

The IIT experts will give suggestions on how the problem that has cropped up may be ironed out. Officials of Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Limited (KMRCL) said that this would not affect construction. They said they would follow the guidelines given by the experts of IIT.

The Old Currency Building was constructed in 1833 when Lord William Bentinck was the Governor General. The Italian style building was known as Agra Bank and office of issue and Exchange of Government   Currency later on.  It had housed the Reserve bank of India till 1937.

The Central Public Works Department (CPWD) in the mid 1990s wanted to pull down the old structure to make room for a multi-storey building and demolished a portion of it. Particularly the back portion of the ground floor was badly affected. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation in 1998 declared it as a heritage building. The ASI started renovating and repairing the structure in 2005. The building is a place of tourist attraction.