BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Bhawan, the four-decade-old guest house of the Odisha government at Chanakyapuri in Delhi, has been declared structurally unsafe and would be demolished soon.
The state government has three official guest houses in Delhi - Odisha Bhawan, Odisha Niwas and Odisha Sadan. Inaugurated in 1980 by the then chief minister Janaki Ballav Patnaik, the Odisha Bhawan has 25 rooms, all of which are in a dilapidated condition.
In 2020, the Delhi Municipal Corporation had called for a structural safety audit of all government buildings to make them seismically compliant. Accordingly, the Works department had conducted the safety audit of the three guest houses at New Delhi. In 2022, it informed the state government that Odisha Bhawan was unsafe for long-term use and recommended for demolition of the existing building within two to three years.
As per official reports, the chief engineer-cum-additional secretary of Works department on August 28 reported that Odisha Bhawan is beyond economic repair and the building is unsafe for habitation. After considering his report, the state government has now authorised the department to dismantle it.
A former manager of the guest house said the demolition would pave way for construction of a new building with close to 100 rooms. “The existing three-storey building was built as per old plan with only 25 rooms. The new building should be planned as per the state guest house in Chennai,” he said.
Odisha Bhawan at Delhi is the second oldest state guest house in the country after Utkal Bhawan in Kolkata which was built in the 1960s.