Tagore Hall to repoen in Srinagar next week

Closed for repairs, renovation and remodeling work about seven years back, Tagore Hall - known as hub of cultural activities - is all set to reopen in Srinagar next week, Jammu and Kashmir government said.
"The historic Tagore Hall is set to be reopened next week," Minister of state for Education and Culture Priya Sethi said yesterday.
Built in 1958 to mark Rabindranath Tagore's centenary celebrations, the Hall was partially damaged in an explosion with the onset of militancy in 1990 following which it was turned into a CRPF camp and witnessed dozens of attacks over the period of time.

The building, which also suffered extensive damage in a fire incident, was renovated in 1998 and reopened a year later after the CRPF was shifted from there, marking the resumption of cultural activities after a decade.
However, another project for its
renovation-cum-modernisation was sanctioned by the government in 2008 and the job was entrusted to Jammu and Kashmir Project Construction Corporation (JKPCC) but the Hall witnessed erratic phases of constructions and missed many deadlines. The massive floods, which hit the valley in September last year, also dented the efforts for early completion of the project.

Sethi, who inspected te ongoing repair and renovation work at Tagore Hall in the civil lines area of the city, said the post-flood work done by the executing agency was "laudable".

Describing the reopening of Tagore Hall as an "important occasion", the minister said this would address the long pending demand of the artistic fraternity, which had to bank upon expensive alternatives for, their creative performances.
Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, which is responsible for the preservation and conservation of the auditorium, said it is a good news for theater and art lovers of the valley that the Tagore Hall is reopening next week.
"With its reopening, Tagore Hall will become operational after a long gap," Deputy Secretary of the Academy Syed Shakeel-ur-Rehman said.