The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has installed a blue plaque at the Bengal Assembly building to recognise its heritage value.
According to the state government’s archive records, the foundation stone of the present legislative building was laid on July 9, 1928 by Sir Francis Stanley Jackson, the then Governor of Bengal. Thereafter, the construction of the building began and the present building came up on a plot of land measuring approximately 33 bighas.
The architecture of the building shows a mixture of oriental and occidental influences and the building resembles the alphabet ‘H’. A KMC heritage committee official said the blue plaque is a symbol to commemorate the heritage status and historical value of the building which is under Grade-I heritage category list. The Member Mayor In Council of the Heritage department, Swapan Samaddar is learnt to have said that KMC is also planning to install boards at the heritage structure stating why the particular structure was included in the heritage list.
It was learnt that once the installation of blue plaques gets completed, KMC will begin installing these boards. Earlier this year, KMC had announced that it will start the gradation of 350 heritage buildings in the city and also install plaques in these houses describing the reason behind the particular building getting a heritage tag. The 350-odd buildings identified are mostly located in Central, North, as well as in East Kolkata. Grade I, Grade IIA, Grade IIB, Grade III are the various grades that are assigned by the KMC.
While assigning the grade, the Heritage Committee of the KMC weighs the structure or precinct’s, architectural value, age, national and local importance, its physical condition among other such crucial parameters.