Town Hall to get facelift soon

Rajamahendravaram: The centuary old ‘Rajamahendra Puramandiram’ (Town Hall), located centrally in the historical city, will get facelift soon. Great social reformer Kandukuri Veeresalingam Panthulu had constructed the town hall, the first one in the state, with his own money in 1890.

The town hall was in dilapidated condition for years together as the local elected representatives or even the government did not take care about its maintenance. Department of Tourism sanctioned an amount of Rs 65 lakh for the renovation of town hall and under the supervision of collector Karthikeya Mishra, Municipal Corporation Commissioner Sumit Kumar is monitoring the works regularly.

The Town Hall is having an open auditorium, jubilee public library, prayer hall and meeting hall. The contractor is using Ganuga Sunnam (lime) in the renovation works, which was used at the time of construction of the town hall.

According to town hall secretary Jammi Rama Rao, the renovation works were commenced during November 2018 to complete it by January 2019 and later on April 1 in connection with the birthday of Kandukuri Veeresalingam Panthulu. Due to some reasons the works were delayed and trying to complete them within one month. State government’s former media advisor Parakala Prabhakar visited the town hall and assured to bring past glory to it.

He also tried to get funds from the Central government and later he put his endeavour to get Rs 65 lakh from Department of Tourism. Kandukuri Veeresalingam Panthulu entered the town hall on October 23, 1890 and later he dedicated it to people in 1897.

He constituted a committee with 13 members to maintain town hall effectively and said the rents get from six shops be used for maintenance of town hall.Veeresalingam Panthulu also said everyone can use the town hall irrespective of caste and creed.