ranchi once a seat of power from where the governor ruled during the british rule the audrey house has been reduced to a shambles because of neglect it had ceased to be a heritage house in common mans memory but now it will get a facelift the 158yearold testimony to british period which has also witnessed many upheavals is now being renovated by the indian national trust for art and cultural heritage intach the total cost of renovation of the twostoreyed building which has wooden floors will be around rs 195 crore the original structure was built in 1854 by captain hannyington the then deputy commissioner of chotanagpur and has a floor area of 30000 square feet the walls of the building are made of sunbaked bricks which are three inches thick and supported by thicker wooden beams inside the wall one can see bamboo sticks placed horizontally after every layer of four bricks which not only provides support to the walls but also prevents sagging owing to lack of maintenance the wall is damaged at many places the roof is supported by wooden beams but 70 of these have been damaged by termite while the first phase will conserve the building the second will establish a museum a librarycumresource centre an art conservation centre a convention hall an openair theatre with a capacity to seat 800 people and a rural hut depicting tribal life the museum library and art conservation centre will serve as resource cells while the theatre will give performing artists a great platform to showcase their talents amitabh mukherjee who has been assigned the work of renovation said the building was first used by the governor himself and later functioned as an extension of the governors secretariat and came to be known as mini secretariat it also housed the office of jharkhand autonomous council jac before formation of jharkhand on november 15 2000 before the restoration work was started recently it was the office of jharkhand state law commission we are happy that governor syed ahmed took personal interest and because of his intervention the renovation work has started it has also been decided that it would be renamed as indira gandhi museum said mukherjee he revealed that a special conservation technology will be used to replace the rot thereafter the structure will have to be redone the original building was made of brick mud and lime but time and again repaired with cement our effort will be to minimize the use of cement so that originality is maintained and anyone who visits the place gets to feel that he is inside a heritage building and not inside its imitation said mukherjee