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. However, the building’s distinctive central courtroom will be preserved and incorporated into the new five-storey court complex.
Workers are dismantling the central courtroom manually, with its architectural elements being carefully removed, numbered and stored for later reconstruction. The exercise is being undertaken as part of the redevelopment of the court premises.
Central courtroom to be preserved
According to a Public Works Department (PWD) official, the demolition is labour-intensive, particularly because of the need to carefully dismantle the heritage elements of the old structure.
Dhanush PV, site engineer with Mugrody Constructions, the agency executing the work, said the peripheral portions of the old building were being demolished, while the central courtroom was being dismantled by hand.
The central hall is considered the most distinctive surviving section of the old courthouse. Its windows, doors, roof components, cornices and other architectural features will be retained.
The Latin writing on the structure will also be preserved as part of the reconstruction.
Each component will be numbered during dismantling to ensure that it can be reassembled in the same sequence.
“We dismantle and number each component before storing it. Once the new building reaches the required level, we take them out and reassemble them in the same order,” Dhanush said.
Heritage elements to be stored safely
The dismantled architectural components will be stored in a covered shed within the court premises at a location designated by the court.
Once construction of the new court building reaches the required upper level, the preserved components will be brought out and reassembled in their original sequence.
The new court complex will otherwise be a completely new structure. The old central courtroom will be recreated as part of the new building using the preserved components.
PWD has also documented the existing structure, including its arches, cornice work, flooring and other architectural details, before the demolition and dismantling work.
The careful removal of these elements is expected to make the demolition process considerably slower than conventional mechanical demolition.
Shifting thousands of court records
Another major challenge is the shifting of court records housed in the old building.
The structure contains an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 files, including records dating back several decades. These records cannot simply be removed and transferred without following the prescribed procedures.
A PWD official said the shifting of files, particularly from the region’s oldest record room, was a labour-intensive process.
“Everything has to be done manually,” the official said, adding that the complete process could take considerably longer than conventional demolition.
The official estimated that the overall process could take another two months.
A senior district court official said the files would be shifted and accommodated in the existing new court complex, where some court halls are currently vacant.
New court complex to cost Rs 60.2 crore
The proposed five-storey court complex is being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 60.2 crore.
The project has received administrative approval, and the tender for the construction work was finalised earlier this year.
The redevelopment will replace the largely unused old courthouse with a modern court facility while retaining the central courtroom as a link to the building’s architectural history.
Courthouse dates back to 1862
The old district court building was constructed in 1862 following the creation of a separate South Canara district.
For more than 150 years, the building remained an important part of the judicial history of the region. It functioned as the principal district and sessions court until judicial operations were shifted to the new court complex in 2014.
The historic structure subsequently remained largely unused.
A separate public prosecutor’s office building on the premises, constructed in 1983, will also be demolished as part of the redevelopment project.
While the original courthouse will no longer survive as a complete structure, the preservation and reconstruction of its central courtroom will retain a significant part of its architectural character within the new complex.
The ongoing work therefore combines redevelopment with an effort to preserve selected elements of one of Mangaluru’s oldest institutional buildings.