Century-old colonial building to give way for Coimbatore District Police Office

Coimbatore 23/10/2014. The British era District Police Office building which is more than a century old is to be demolished soon and a new building will be constructed in the site. Photo:K.Ananthan

The century-old colonial building that houses the District Police Office (DPO) near the District Collectorate will be demolished to give way for the new spacious DPO. As a first step before demolishing the building constructed in 1902, the office of the Superintendent of Police and other departments that are functioning here will be relocated to a temporary building in Ram Nagar from Friday.

It is learnt that prior to the police, the building housed the forest department office. It is located on Railway Station Road just in front of the main telephone exchange of the BSNL.

The building was handed over to the Police Department in 1908 when H.D. Robertson was the DIG of Police. From 1908-09 it was the DIG office and on September 15, 1972 it was made the SP office.

Superintendent of Police of the Coimbatore District Police M. Sudhakar told The Hindu that the 112-year-old building was the office of many British officers in the pre-Independence era.

“After the Coimbatore District Police was formed, Mr. Vaikunth assumed office as the first SP of the district in September 1972 and had his office in the building. So far, the building housed the office of 35 SPs,” he said.

In addition to the office of the Superintendent of Police, the building also housed the offices of the additional superintendents of police, administration department, district crime records bureau, rural control room, technical wing, anti-land grabbing cell and the passport section.

The SP said that the proposal for demolishing the building arose due to the need for more space as the exiting floor area in the building is only about 20,000 sq ft and because the building structure has become weak and badly required replacement.

About the new building that will be constructed in place of the existing building, the SP said that the three-storied structure sprawling on an area of 33,700 sq.ft. would be constructed at an estimate of Rs. 6.36 crore.

Tender to be floated

Tender for constructing the building will soon be floated by the Tamil Nadu Police Housing Corporation.

Police sources said that they have completed the auction for persons to remove the materials from the existing building – such as the valuable Burma Teak wood with which it was constructed. On completion of the removal of those materials the building will be demolished.