Guwahati, Oct 4 : The iconic Deputy Commissioner’s (DC) Bungalow of Guwahati was on Sunday opened to the public as a heritage centre.

Hon VP Sri M Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated Mahabahu Brahmaputra River Heritage Centre at Panbazar, Guwahati. It houses antique articles showcasing our rich heritage. Happy to have attended the program along with Hon Gov Sri @jagdishmukhi & Min Sri @TheAshokSinghal.@VPSecretariat pic.twitter.com/UqsS6Xrol5

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) October 3, 2021

The Bungalow was constructed over 150 years back to serve as the residence of the British Deputy Commissioner of Kamrup.The British-era building which has been renovated at the cost of Rs 9 crore is almost complete and has been upgraded as one of the most beautiful tourist sites in the city. It will now be knows as ‘Mahabahu Brahmaputra River Heritage Centre’.

The bungalow was set up by the British and has witnessed various events in history, spanning years of struggle for Independence and the years after Independence when the bungalow was the official residence of the DC.The bungalow is among one of the integral heritage structures that reflect the history of the city and its adjoining topography.

The government decided to restore the bungalow in 2012 which had gone into dereliction and to preserve it by transforming it into a heritage centre.

Vice Prez Naidu inaugurates the Heritage Bungalow

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, who is in Assam as part of a three-day tour to the Northeast, inaugurated the Mahabahu Brahmaputra River Heritage Centre in the presence of Governor Jagdish Mukhi and Chief minister Himaanta Biswa Sarma.

In a detailed Facebook post later, Naidu praised the effort to convert the bungalow into a heritage property and commented on its beauty.“This is where the great warrior Lachit Barphukan made a decisive attack on the Mughals and forced them to return….Transforming this bungalow into Brahmaputra River Heritage Centre is a mark of respect for this vast river that nourished the civilisation here for centuries,” he wrote.

Located atop Barphukanar Tilla, a small hillock named after the most famous Ahom general Lachit Barphukan, it is the site from where the Ahom forces planned and launched attacks on the Mughal army during the Battle of Saraighat in 1671, which the latter lost.“After the British annexed Assam in 1826 (after the Treaty of Yandaboo), the post of DC was created for Guwahati in 1839. But the city had no appropriate house at that time to accommodate Captain James Matthie, the first DC,” said a government press statement.

“Several sites were surveyed before Barphukanar Tilla on the banks of the Brahmaputra, where cannons used in the Battle of Saraighat lay scattered, was chosen. Post-independence, it continued to be the DC’s bungalow until 2011,” the release added.

Though the exact date of when the bungalow was completed is not known, it is believed to be sometime in the 1850s.