As the State celebrates Rabindranath Tagore’s birth anniversary, Dr Ramdayal Munda’s dream for Tagore Hill is plodding towards reality. The beautification plan of the historic spot envisioned by the late Rajya Sabha member, scholar and tribal ideologue is slowly taking shape despite over two years having passed since it was first mooted.
“I have deputed the executive engineer of National Rural Employment Programme (NREP) phase-I – the agency entrusted with the task—to monitor the progress of construction work there and report to me periodically. I have also asked him to expedite the matter,” said Ranchi Deputy Commissioner Vinay Chaubey, who also heads the Tagore Hill Society, the registered body responsible for the site.
late Dr Munda had wanted to set up an Akhra or a pillared open-air theatre at Tagore Hill, and had even released a sum of Rs95 lakh from his MP local area development fund for it-- one of his last actions as a public servant before his death on September 30, 2011.
Munda wanted to turn the hill into a cultural hub where artistes and artisans from all over India could assemble for cultural exchanges and events. For the audience, he had envisaged seating arrangements for 100 VIPs near its periphery, and wide galleries around it where chairs could be placed for others to watch performances. Also planned were halls for discussions on important socio-cultural issues, and guest rooms where visiting artistes could stay.
Interestingly, the renovation blueprint was prepared thrice at two-year intervals-- in 2008, 2010 and 2012. And in October 2011, the Arjun Munda government had decided to provide additional finances to complete the beautification and conservation works.
So far, “roughly 25 percent of the construction has been completed and work is going on. Phase I of the work will be carried out from the funds released by Dr Munda, and more funding will be raised in the second phase,” said Chaubey. Some 20 workers at the construction site.
O.P. Singh, the executive engineer of National Rural Employment Programme (NREP)-1, the agency entrusted by the district administration for the job, however put the extent of completed work at 50 per cent after a site inspection on Thursday. “We have completed the third level plastering of the open air theatre and the rest of the plaster work is in the finishing stages. At this rate the theatre should be ready within three months,” said Singh. As for the delay, he attributed the slow pace of work to the difficult terrain.
“The ground here is rocky. Also there were some old reinforced cement concrete (RCC) structures which had to be removed. And all this work had to be done manually with chisels and hammers, as blasting or using heavy machinery was not an option due to the hill’s heritage value. This also meant that digging the foundation trenches took longer than usual, pushing up the overall time taken,” said Singh.
Perched 300 feet high and offering a birds’-eye view of the capital, the scenic spot has great historical value. Jyotindranath Tagore, Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s elder brother, bought the hill in 1908 from landowner Harihar Singh and built a retreat for his ailing wife Kadabari Devi.