HISTORY OF THE FIRST POST OFFICE OF SOUTH INDIA CHENNAI GPO 600001
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The General Post office on Rajaji salai(earlier Known as North Beach Road) is one of the major landmarks of Chennai City and prominent heritage building.In 196, a sum of Rs.2 lakhs was alloted for the construction of this building.The building was designated by Mr.RF Chisholm,Government Architect at the time who had to his credit some ornaments of buildings like "The Senate House"," The central station" and The Town Hall".
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In 1884,at a cost of £60,000(variously mentioned as Rs.7 lakhs to 8 lakhs then), the building of CTO and GPO occupying a litte over 55000 sq.ft,were completed.The Chennai GPO building can be described as a red painted Victorian Country Colonial or Victorian Gothic -Colonial Overlay on Indo-Saracenic design.
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It is three- Storied building, 352ft long and 162 ft wide with 125 ft tall twin towers. The building is spread over an area of 6,085.30 sq meters(60,000 sq.ft).
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The twin towers, when build, Sported the Kerala roof influenced" Caps" atop as favoured by Chisholm, influenced by his building assignments in Travancore.In 1884, the occupation of the buildings had taken place in three phases. On 01.03.1884, the office of the Postmaster General moves their Departments into the buildings followed by the Government Telegraph office on 09.03.1884.The Post office moved to this building on 26.04.1884 and the business was thrown open to the public at 11.00am that day.
On 22nd October 2000, a fire gutted the building after which a major restoration was undertaken by the Government. About 15000sq.ft of the built up area was extensively damaged due to the fire.
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The Restoration was completed in 2005 and the first two floors were opened after renovation on 26th November 2005.This building still remains as an Iconic landmark of the city
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