Pillar to Post: GPO's Rs 52-crore restoration is in third phase

The metal pillar behind him used to be the same colour as the salt in postman Manohar Gadegaonkar's hair. "It was made of cement," recalls the veteran postman about the bony iron column at his workplace of 35 years. One of at least 12 formerly-round plaster pillars that prop up the two-storeyed General Post Office's (GPO) postal delivery room, the pillar was recently shorn of generations of concrete flab piled on by various ad hoc repairs.

Stripped down to its century-old reddish-brown marrow, the grungy red post is among the many visible signs of reverse ageing displayed by the 110-year-old two-storeyed GPO building, a Grade I heritage structure that wears India's second-largest dome as a crown.


"The whole look has changed," says his younger colleague, postman Sachin Jadhav, who would often find himself flicking cement flakes off his khaki when he joined 16 months ago.

The Rs 52-crore basement-to-dome restoration project of Fort's GPO—which started in June 2021 following an MoU between the Indian National Trust for Art, Culture and Heritage ( INTACH ) and GPO—is now in its third phase. Funded by the Department of Posts, Phase I—which covered the west wing of the building facing CSMT—was completed in September 2022, while work on Phase II, comprising the iconic 64-lotus-petal-lined dome which had developed a crack, began in the middle of 2022.


Phase III on the east wing, adjacent to the P D’Mello Road, and the next phase—which will focus on the Meghdoot building and other ancillary stone structures apart from site development—are expected to be completed by September 2025. "We haven't discovered any treasures so far..." deadpans Amitabh Singh, Chief Postmaster General, Maharashtra Circle, leaving room for the possibility as INTACH plans to conduct a survey of the tunnel towards the east of the GPO site, which is said to connect the GPO with the Gateway of India.


Though the current structure was built in 1913, the GPO predates the Gateway of India. Established by the East India Company in a building near Apollo Pier in 1794, "it initially focused on minting coins and introduced its communication network only some decades later," says a TOI report. Later, the GPO moved to the Central Telegraph Office building adjacent to the Cross Maidan near Churchgate before it became a part of the campus belonging to St George Hospital adjacent to the then Victoria Terminus.


Designed by Scotland-born architect John Begg, who came to Bombay in 1901 to take up the post of consulting architect to the city, the current basalt structure was built between 1904 and 1913 at a cost of Rs 18 lakh. With its arched windows, ornate woodwork, and a concrete crown inspired by Karnataka's Gol Gumbaz, the GPO could pass for the identical twin of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS).


It is no coincidence that the central circular plan, replicated on the first floors of both buildings, the geometric arches, and the concretised domes are strikingly similar. George Wittet, the British architect of the CSMVS museum, was Begg's assistant. The duo were largely responsible for changing the official architectural style of the city from neo-gothic to 'Indo-Saracenic' buildings inspired by India's Islamic architecture in the early 20th century.


A blend of Indo-Islamic accents and Gothic architectural elements, the GPO "played a major role in establishing the Indo-Saracenic style as the official style for building in British India," write the late historian Sharda Dwivedi and architect Rahul Mehrotra in their book 'Bombay: The Cities Within'. Built in the local grey basalt stone with dressings of yellow sandstone from Malad and Dhrangadhara, "the building showcases unique technological advancements of the time such as the reinforced cement concrete flat slabs whereas all the exterior walls were made up of dressed stone masonry in lime mortar," says conservation architect Hrutika Satdive of INTACH.


Curiously, "there is no existing blueprint of the GPO," says Swati Pandey, former postmaster general, Mumbai Region. "Among the first buildings to be developed in the revivalist Indo-Saracenic style, it was a hit and trial for architect Begg, who retired to Scotland after the work was completed," says Pandey, recalling that she found the building in a state when she first entered her office in 2018. "Rats fell on me when I walked in," exclaims Pandey, adding that the tiling of the historic building was broken in many places and the building was leaking profusely.


Situated near two 19th-century heritage buildings designed by British architect F W Stevens—CSMT station and the BMC—the GPO "had not undergone repairs in a long time," recalls Pandey, about the building which was last reported to have been restored for Rs 1 crore in the mid-2000s following a fire in 1996. Keen to retrieve its glory as a self-confessed history buff hailing from Odisha, "I approached the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India). They said no. I approached the architects doing the restoration of the BMC and CST. They said no," recalls Pandey.


Unfazed, she says she enlisted the help of many old records and historical descriptions of Mumbai GPO in the stories of yesteryears, got hold of CSMVS' blueprint, and tied up with INTACH. Along with their site engineer and team of architects, Pandey remembers spending weekends and after-work hours designing the plan entailing new teakwood rafters and Bharat heritage tiles.


The official approvals didn't come easy. "It took me one year to get a Rs 16-crore tender," says the former postmaster general. "Some said that I was reinventing history," recalls Pandey, who issued a separate tender for repairing and conserving the dome. INTACH's conservation proposal aimed to increase the longevity of the structure while incorporating modern needs of the users of the building.


When it was approved by the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee, every nook of the building was measured, photographed, and sized up. "The GPO is a Grade I heritage building . So, minimum changes to the original fabric of the structure were allowed. The structure had undergone noticeable ad hoc changes, which were to be removed to restore its integrity," says Satdive, recalling that a limestone "chakki" was set up in the delivery room as part of the project.


"It was crucial to phase the project out to cause minimum disruption to working," says Satdive, adding that the post office building—which houses the Postmaster General, Mumbai Region, the Chief Postmaster General, Maharashtra Circle, and around 800 employees including 120 postmen. "A major task was the temporary shifting of the offices, ensuring the safety of the staff and public, and working in common spaces without causing any disruption," says Satdive.

"Since we had to integrate modern technology such as air-conditioners with the old, things like wiring were creatively concealed," says Ajinkya Kale, director of postal services, Mumbai region, pointing to the enclosed AC ducts in the office of Singh, the recent CPMG of Maharashtra Circle who had found a stark difference in the building where he had last walked in as an intern 25 years ago. With the cubicles and false ceiling gone, "the building opened up vertically," he recalls.


Given the state govt-approved plan for illumination, the facelift will help provide the much-needed limelight to the building, feels Satdive. "People often fail to remember that this is a public building and can be accessed from inside, which will give a closer look into the postal history of the city," she adds. Once the project is complete, the Philately Museum will be accessible to the public "to see the plethora of history of not just the department of posts but also the grand building that housed it for a century," says Singh.