Amritsar Haat, Food Street may be thrown open

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 24

With a view to attract tourists, Urban Haat and Food Street are likely to be thrown open to the public by the middle of next year.

Both key projects will be housed in the heritage building of the erstwhile Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital. Currently, its renovation and reconstruction are underway.

The project is aimed at prolonging the stay of tourists in the city, who otherwise leave after visiting key destinations like the Golden Temple and the retreat ceremony at the Attari-Wagah border. Earlier, the government had planned to set up a food street at Ram Bagh, but the move was shot down by the ASI.

The British-era building had been lying abandoned for years. A food street on the pattern of Lahore’s and a heritage hotel will be other major attractions of the ambitious project of the Parkash Singh Badal government to catapult the Amritsar tourism industry into an international one.

The tender was allotted to a Delhi-based private firm last week, which is expected to finish the work in nine months after it starts.

PUDA approved the detailed project report (DPR) to develop the Amritsar Haat and a Heritage Hotel at the heritage building of the Hospital in the heart of the city. With this, the setting up of a food street on the pattern of Lahore Food Street will finally see the light of day as part of Amritsar haat.

It engaged the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) to prepare the DPR because the hospital has a heritage value.

The abandoned hospital building was formerly known as Victoria Jubilee Hospital, which was named in commemoration of the jubilee celebrations of Queen Victoria’s rule and began functioning here in 1891.

The prime land is situated less than a km from the Golden Temple and the Jallianwala Bagh.

The site spans over a 9.70-acre area. The Urban Haat is proposed on the northern portion of the site. It will have features like a craft appreciation centre, souvenir shops, Punjab emporiums, a food court (with 400- people capacity), a restaurant, an open-air theater, plazas, eating joints, a craft bazaar, exhibition, meeting rooms, an administrative complex, toilets, kitchens, green rooms, a gym and a spa. A heritage hotel with 100-room capacity will be added to the haat.

The objectives of the initiative are preservation, conservation, restoration and reuse of the existing building as Urban Haat and Heritage Hotel. The site has been divided into three parts. The heritage building, raised between 1860 and 1920, will be conserved without any modifications.

Later, additions made between 1920 and 1940 could be modified and altered according to the need and function. The structures added after 1940 will be demolished.

The estimated cost of the entire project is at more than Rs 9 crore. Stress was being laid to encourage the retention and productive reuse of structures that have historic, architectural and cultural value. Common guidelines had been formulated to retain authenticity, minimum intervention, cost-effective economic regeneration, use of traditional techniques and material for Amritsar Haat and Heritage Hotel.

As many as 20 kitchens have been set up for the food street, complete with landscaping of the green belt and the fountains. Its new entrance would be opened from the Cooper road side, opposite the Bhandari Bridge.