Should VP Hall Be Restored?

Poor VP Hall. The path to its restoration and eventual use seems under fire. The latest in the saga of conservation and rededication as a city centre is the sudden barrage of bad press it received in the last few days. Do we need so much (Rs 40 crore) to be spent on this building was the query raised. In a year when elections to the State Assembly are expected, such questions have potential to cause disquiet. But there can be no two answers — the city’s hall deserves this restoration.

There are certain symbols that must be maintained, and this is one of them.

V.P. Hall, as seen from the Park Town station

A Hall with a Revenue Model

The irony is that VP Hall is among the few heritage restoration projects of the Government where there is a revenue model in sight. That is more than can be said about its predecessors. The University Senate House, which was the first significant restoration in which I was involved as a mere fly on the wall, cost Rs 11 crores, much of it crowd-funded. That was in 2007, and you can adjust the cost to the present values. Nothing came of that exercise beyond giving examination papers a well-maintained home. Senate House was not put to the uses that were promised. Then you have Chepauk Palace.

Estimates vary, but if the cost of all wings and tower is added, you get more than Rs 50 crores — and all for becoming home to the National Green Tribunal, with a museum of independence attached.

The Case for VP Hall

Compared to these, VP Hall has a far more robust revenue model. They are talking of a museum (not the most original of ideas) on the ground floor, but the first floor is to be let out for events. If this were to be professionally managed and not subject to political pulls or outmoded socialist pricing, there is no reason why VP Hall should not generate revenue.

The key, of course, lies in professional management. The place needs to be contracted out or at least placed under a Trust Board that has a chief executive with revenue targets. Additions of a coffee shop and a souvenir store may add to the scope. And the museum itself will need to have changing exhibits if it wants footfalls. At present, all of these ideas seem to be there.

It remains to be seen how the implementation happens.

A “Minor” Restoration?

It is not clear as to what prompted the Corporation to term the present activity at VP Hall a ‘minor restoration’ exercise. The building is actually being refurbished from top to bottom. It is just that the entire project has been subject to enormous delays — starting with litigation, then the Metro Rail excavations, and now the present restoration.

In all of this, the costs have only multiplied.

Lessons from Neglect

There is a bigger lesson here. Much of the cost overrun at Senate House, Chepauk Palace, and VP Hall is due to years of neglect. If these buildings were in regular use, the damage to be rectified would have been far less. Routine maintenance by itself would have cost a fraction of what such extensive restoration does. The Government has consistently made this mistake — closing down heritage buildings and later either demolishing them or embarking on expensive refurbishments.

Fortunately, the former has reduced in occurrence. But the latter, when taken up, is like mending an old fabric — a rent fixed at one end often leads to a tear in another, and the process swallows money.

Keeping VP Hall in regular use is important for the future too.

This article appeared in The Hindu-https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/why-chennais-victoria-public-hall-deserves-to-be-restored/article70242774.ece

My book, Chennai, A Biography can be ordered–http://- https://sriramv.com/2021/12/27/how-to-buy-autographed-copies-of-chennai-a-biography-from-outstation/