Saving Rani Bakhri or crushing it with hotel plan, ask heritage lovers

BHUBANESWAR: The Tourism department is soon going to launch its third Nimantran restaurant at the historic Rani Bakhri in Sambalpur. It recently floated a tender seeing bids to operate and maintain Nimantran as a heritage restaurant which aims at promoting and serving Odia cuisine from different districts. 

Those associated with the history and culture of Sambalpur, however, said the heritage property could have been converted into a ticketed museum or gallery to keep the monument safe and allow public access to it.
The three-storey palace, which was built on 0.05 decimal land in 1650 by the 5th Chouhan king of Sambalpur Baliyar Singh, is located close to Mahanadi river near Kamli Bazaar. It was renovated two years back by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) using traditional techniques. 

During the renovation, the Principal Director Architectural Heritage Division of INTACH Divay Gupta had asked the conservators not to modify any element of the palace keeping in mind its rich architectural value.

However, in a bid to convert the palace into a restaurant, the Odisha Tourism Development Corporation roped in a private agency which made structural changes to it. Eight dining rooms, one each dining area in the verandah and open area, a kitchen, three restrooms were developed, among other things, meddling with the original design.

“Running a hotel in a palace that is witness to a bygone era, is an arbitrary and unethical decision. If the department was keen on saving this piece of Western Odisha’s heritage, it could have opened a museum or a gallery or a space where history of the Chouhan dynasty, rich art and culture of Western Odisha could be showcased. Why run a hotel? By doing so, the department has limited access to only people who want to eat there,” said Shyam Sundar Dhar, a local historian.

A group of heritage lovers of Sambalpur had filed a PIL in the Orissa High Court against the plan last year following which, the court last month directed Culture department to examine the petition and hold discussions with the petitioners to find a solution to the issue by December 12 this year. No discussion has been held yet.

Pragyan Pattnaik, one of the petitioners, said though people of Sambalpur welcome the idea of opening an authentic Odia cuisine restaurant, Rani Bakhri is not the place for the purpose. “Operating a restaurant would mean more damage to the ancient palace, be it from drilling the roof and walls for fixing chandeliers or ACs or smoke from the kitchen,” she said.Efforts to contact higher officials of the department did not yield any response.

MONUMENTAL PROBLEM

The 3-storey palace was built in 1650 by the 5th Chouhan king of Sambalpur Baliyar Singh
Renovated 2 years back by INTACH using traditional techniques
OTDC meddled with design to construct 8 dining rooms, one each dining area in the verandah and open area, a kitchen, three restrooms
Heritage lovers filed PIL in Orissa HC in 2021 seeking cancellation of Nimantran plan