Redevelopment of Bhide Wada will begin soon: Chandrakant Patil
The school will be run by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) while the basement will house the shops which are already located there
Pune guardian minister Chandrakant Patil is hopeful that work on the redevelopment of Bhide Wada – the historic building where India’s first girls’ school was started by Jyotiba and Savitribai Phule in 1848 – will commence soon. Plans are afoot for Bhide Wada to be redeveloped as a national monument and to house a girls’ school. The seven-storeyed structure will have five floors reserved for the school which will have all modern amenities. The school will be run by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) while the basement will house the shops which are already located there.
Patil said, “Four positive steps have been taken regarding Bhide Wada; there was a discussion about making it a national monument, the court case is in January, and we are hoping that the decision will be positive. The decision will be taken after understanding the architectural situation. Whether the government can buy the land or not will be decided after the court’s verdict but now, the shops of the owners will be accommodated. The court has to decide the place in Bhide Wada where the monument can be constructed. Hopefully, everything will be finalised in the month of January after which redevelopment work will begin.” The minister was speaking to reporters at Council Hall on Monday.
Currently, the school housed by Bhide Wada started in 1848 is in a dilapidated condition after being shut down almost 15 years ago. Plans to redevelop Bhide Wada as a national monument have not taken off due to opposition from the owners of the shops located there. Recently, during the state’s winter session in Nagpur, chief minister Eknath Shinde assured that a meeting would soon be called in this regard and that the state government was positive about redeveloping Bhide Wada as a national memorial and that it would also fund the initiative.
Amenities at Bhide Wada school
19th-century architecture
Memorials of companions who helped the Phules start the school will be built
A section on the history of social reforms during the 19th and 20th century
Classes on advanced technology