Vizag's railway guest house is an ode to an era gone by

Visakhapatnam: The majestic arched porticos of the 125-year-old railway guest house surrounded with lawns on a vast premises at one of the main junctions of the city on the Beach Road evokes a curiosity in people witnessing it for first time.

Constructed by the Dutch in 1892, the building is rectangular in shape overlooking the bay in East Point area. The building laid out as a two-storied structure in stone masonry fortified with buttresses consists of a number of suites with colonnaded semicircular arched verandahs in the front.

The two floors have arched porticos and a congruent gable over it. The ceilings made up of wood are still intact, though roofs of some rooms have been renovated with cement ceiling. Besides, the simple but fine designs on the door and windows of the building give an elegant look to the interior and exterior parts.
The stone walls still look new owing to good maintenance.

“The coal dust coupled with sea moisture makes the wall surface black. Hence once a week, we clean all the walls properly. The stones are really very strong and of great quality. Else, the salt deterioration and pollution would have damaged all over the years like other heritage buildings,” said a maintenance staff.

The railways have engaged seven permanent staff and hired about 15 staff on contract to look after the building and the garden. The building did not face any damage in the cyclone Hudhud, except uprooting of some trees on the premises, he added.

According to railway sources, another old railway guest house, at the left of the building, now known as Nova Guest House, partially collapsed in 1996, and was demolished in 2005 to build the new structure there. The railway top brass visiting the Waltair division are accommodated here.