Kolkata Municipal Corporation enlists Bhupen Hazarika’s Tollygunge house in its ‘Heritage List’

January 04: Music probably transgresses all political bitterness and brings people and communities close to each other. Amidst the ongoing anti-CAA protests, when Assam and West Bengal governments are positioned poles apart due to their political affiliation, a news can probably go a long way in maintaining an amiable relation between the two neighbours.

The Kolkata residence of music maestro Bhupen Hazarika at Golf Club Road in Tollygunge will soon make it to Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s (KMC) heritage building list. The matter has been recently approved in the meeting of the Member, Mayor-in-Council (MMiC) at KMC. On the recent List of Heritage, his three storeyed 77/B, Tollygunge Golf Club Home was enlisted. In this home, the singer stayed the most of his time from 1956. Many famous singers from Mumbai used to visit his house. Hazarika’s house is enlisted at the ward no. 94 of Kolkata Municipality.

According to reports, the singer, poet and filmmaker, who shifted base to Kolkata from Assam in 1952, lived as a tenant at the three-storey house for several years before buying it in 1981. He is known to have sold the property in the late 1990s after moving to Mumbai.

It needs mention here that on October 2018, the BJP government in Assam decided to acquire and restore music maestro Bhupen Hazarika’s three-storey house in Kolkata, where the bard had lived for around four decades and composed many of his masterpieces.The decision to purchase the house and turn it into a cultural centre was taken at a cabinet meeting.

Just after the cabinet meeting on October 2018, Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters, “The house at Golf Club Road at Tollygunge in Kolkata will be purchased for Rs 1.7 crore. Additionally, Rs 25 lakh has been earmarked for renovation work.” It was also learnt that the present owner, Sushil Dangi, who acquired the house 10 years ago, has agreed to the Assam government’s proposal.