113-year-old MLA hostel all set to get a majestic makeover worth ₹92 crore
The insides of the heritage building in Colaba will be stripped, each room to measure 600 sqft
THE FIVE-STOREY BUILDING HAD 98 SUITES OF VARIED FLOOR SPACES
MUMBAI: The Majestic Hostel, a 113-year-old heritage building in Colaba, also called the MLA hostel, that houses legislators, is all set for a makeover.
The Mumbai presidency division of the state Public Works Department (PWD) issued a tender for the ₹92-crore renovation on Tuesday. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was a resident here before he became Chief Minister of the state on October 31, 2014.
Chandrakant Naik, executive engineer of PWD’S presidency division said, “While the exterior of the building will remain untouched and only spruced up, the inside will be torn down and rebuilt from scratch.”
Earlier, the Sahakari Bhandar (a chain of departmental stores), which occupied the ground floor of the building, had filed a case in Bombay high court against PWD, stating the latter was out to evict them. PWD subsequently intervened and the case was withdrawn. “The makeover could not take off due to this impasse. The project will take two years to be completed,” said Naik. He added that after the building is refurbished, Sahakari Bhandar will be allowed to return to its original spot.
The five-storey building, which had 98 suites of varied floor spaces, will eventually have 72 suites, each measuring approximately 600 square feet. The hostel will also have a conference room. The plan was first finalized in 2012 at a cost of ₹70 crore, which has since burgeoned. In 2015, the government had asked the legislators to vacate the building as it had become weak – there were leaks, dampness all around, and cracks in the columns and slabs.
Architect Shashank Mehendale, of Shashank Mehendale and Associates, in-charge of designing the interiors, said, “The building has jack arches inside; we will set up steel beams and concrete. The façade will not be touched. Only the external drainage pipes will be removed and green growth weeded out.”
The MLA hostel was originally Majestic Hotel. Historian Deepak Rao said, “Only Europeans were allowed to live in the hotel.”
In the 1960s, when the Maharashtra assembly functioned out of what is now the state police headquarters, the hotel was converted into a hostel for MLAS (owing to its proximity to their workplace). The original building was designed by architect WA Chambers, and inaugurated in 1909.
In the 1980s the state assembly moved to the new Vidhan Bhavan, in Nariman Point, but the MLA hostel remained in the same space. At one point, Mumbai had four MLA hostels: one near Akashwani building, Majestic, another small one next to state police headquarters and Manora, which had four towers. Manora was declared dilapidated and pulled down for makeover four years ago. It was first handed over to National Building Construction Company and subsequently taken over by PWD. The tender for its renovation received a poor response with only one company applying.