The historic Town Hall complex in Chandni Chowk will be redeveloped as a Global Heritage Centre under a 30-year agreement between the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation (DTTDC), bringing a long-unused civic property back into public and cultural use.
The agreement was signed on Sunday in the presence of Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta. It covers the conservation and redevelopment of the Town Hall, the Press Building and an adjoining park spread across around 12,180 square metres. The Grade-I heritage complex, constructed between 1860 and 1866, is proposed to include a museum and facilities for cultural and tourism-related activities.
The MCD will retain ownership of the property, while the DTTDC will undertake a structural assessment, conduct surveys and prepare a Detailed Project Report. The redevelopment will then be taken up either through public investment or the public-private partnership route. A Joint Working Group comprising officials from the DTTDC and MCD will review the project regularly.
The initial tenure of the agreement is 30 years and can be extended by another 30 years through mutual consent. The project is expected to follow an adaptive reuse approach, allowing the heritage structure to serve contemporary cultural and tourism functions while retaining its architectural character.
Archival material, artefacts and historical records associated with the Town Hall will remain with the MCD. The arrangement therefore separates ownership and custodianship of the site from the proposed management and redevelopment process led by the DTTDC. The next formal stage will be the preparation of the structural assessment, surveys and DPR before a financing and implementation model is finalised.
The Town Hall complex had served as the MCD headquarters for several decades before the civic body shifted to the Dr SP Mukherjee Civic Centre on Minto Road in 2010. Since then, the property has remained largely unused, according to the report by Millennium Post.
Located near Chandni Chowk and Old Delhi Railway Station, the complex is among the prominent heritage properties in the Shahjahanabad area. Its redevelopment will place a historically significant civic building within the wider heritage-tourism landscape of Old Delhi, an area that combines dense commercial activity, major transport access and a concentration of historic structures.
Gupta said the Town Hall was “not merely a building” but an important part of Delhi’s history and heritage. She said the government would seek to preserve its historical and architectural identity while developing tourism and cultural activities at the site.
Tourism Minister Kapil Mishra said the redevelopment would add to Old Delhi’s heritage-tourism infrastructure. He said the government’s effort was to make historical monuments more attractive and useful for domestic and international tourists while preserving their heritage.
The project’s immediate milestones are the structural assessment, site surveys and preparation of the Detailed Project Report. The final redevelopment route, whether through public investment or a public-private partnership, will be determined after that process.
