DOMELESS: Currency Building holds pride of place in Dalhousie Square. A Telegraph picture

Two of the grandest apartment blocks of the city ? Metropolitan Building and Queens Mansion ? are reborn, and this has worked wonders for the ambience of the two important roads on which they stand.

Both Chowringhee and Park Street, respectively, look like they have gained a new lease of life.

But Dalhousie Square looks relatively dull because one of the most visible structures here, Currency Building, has for several years now, turned into a man-made ruin of truly majestic proportions.

The central public works department (CPWD), that was in charge of the 150-year-old, Italian-style building, wanted to demolish it and build a highrise there. It had even engaged a contractor to pull it down. Soon, the massive central dome was torn down.

At that time, the contractor?s security men used to be in charge of the partially-demolished building and a wealth of valuable materials, like Italian marble, Burma teak and iron chests, was smuggled out of the building.

According to an estimate by engineers of the municipal architect and town planner's department, material worth more than Rs 2 crore has been sold secretly from the Currency Building site.

With time, Currency Building turned into a jungle of parasites. Even after the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was officially put in charge of the building in 2003, CPWD refused to hand it over, and its condition deteriorated.

The ASI was given possession in 2005, and it has restored Currency Building up to the first floor. Bimal Bandopadhyay, superintending archaeologist, ASI, Calcutta Circle, says the wrought iron gate had become impenetrable, blocked as it was by debris. Now, all the rubble has been cleared.

Anybody who enters the building now through this gate is bound to be awestruck by the massive dimensions of the remains of the interiors. Encircled by rows upon rows of arched corridors is the breath-taking void that was once the grand central hall surmounted by three domes.

All the Italian marble that paved the floors has been gouged out. The massive arches, delicately adorned with stucco, that supported the domes and the huge lunettes, remain. Complete with vegetation running riot, and roots dangling up to the floor, it seems to have emerged out of a romantic poet?s imagination.

Permanent measures are needed to protect the building. Bandopadhyay says in June 2005, he had prepared an estimate and applied for funds. Delhi?s response is awaited.