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In 1673, French traders established a trading post, Chandannagar, on the banks of Hooghly. Since then, Chandannagar was a French colony till 1950.
Nearly three and a half centuries later, France is now mulling a project to revive its association with Chandannagar, approximately 45 km from Kolkata. On the cards is restoration of approximately 20-odd heritage buildings and setting up an institution for exchange of ideas between the French and Bengali intelligentsia.
“French Embassy is working with the Archaeological Survey of India for restoring some of the heritage buildings in Chandannagar. We are in the process of identifying the properties,” Thierry Robert, Deputy Director, Deputy Cultural Counsellor, Institut Francais, French Embassy in India, told Business Line .
Robert was in the city to announce Bonjour India 2013 – a three-month long French festival of dance, music, literature, theatre and cinema. There might be close to 20-25 heritage buildings in Chandannagar which needs to be restored immediately, he said.
The restoration project, conceived a year ago could take another two years for completion. While funding details will be finalised at a later stage, the Embassy is, open to rope in private investors and also the West Bengal government in the project.
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