Old Makes Way: Demolition begins at Mangaluru’s district court building, one of the city’s oldest public structures
Mangaluru: Demolition of Mangaluru’s 164-year-old district court building has begun, marking the end of one of the city’s oldest public structures. The old building houses around 10,000 to 20,000 files, including records dating back several decades, and these cannot simply be removed and shifted without following the prescribed procedure. The proposed five-storey court complex is being constructed at a cost of Rs 60.2 crore. The old courthouse was constructed in 1862 following the creation of a separate South Canara district. It functioned as the principal district and sessions court until the judiciary moved to the new court complex in 2014. A separate building within the premises, the public prosecutor’s office built in 1983, will also be demolished as part of the redevelopment.
A senior official from the district court told TOI that the files will be shifted and accommodated in the existing new complex, where some court halls are vacant. Once the new building reaches the required level, we take them out and reassemble them in the same order,” Dhanush said. But a distinctive part of the old courthouse will live on. Workers are carefully dismantling the central courtroom by hand, retaining its architectural elements to reassemble them as part of the new five-storey court complex. Shifting court records is another major part of the exercise. The official added that the complete process could take another two months. The dismantled components will be stored in a covered shed within the court premises at a location designated by the court. Once construction of the new building reaches the upper floor, the components will be retrieved and reassembled in their original sequence. “We dismantle and number each component before storing it. The new court complex will otherwise be a new structure, with the old central courtroom recreated as part of it. It subsequently remained largely unused.
The project received administrative approval, and the tender was finalised earlier this year.
