The Nagpur GPO

I have been a frequent visitor to the Nagpur GPO for a while. I did tell you all about the Philately account with the postal dept, and I generally keep about 10 dollars in my account. This allows to account to run out every other month and gives me a great excuse to visit the place.

The GPO is a beautiful two storied building built in the Victorian style. It is a load bearing structure having brick walls, steel columns, beams and ribs encased in Limer concretewith pitched roof in country tiles and battens.

I am not an architectural expert and any of you might correct me or provide more information, but as per my knowledge, a "Load bearing structure" is one where the walls bear the whole weight of the building. In modern construction, the actual weight of the building is taken by beams running through the building. I am not sure of the advantages of either type, but most of the buildings built by the britishers during the begining of the century were of the Load bearing type.

The exterior of the GPO has red painted bricks and buff colored sandstone. The main structure has wide verhandas, tuscan columns, stone screens and a roman arch topped by a pavillion of 12 columns supporting a clock tower. I found it very satisfying to note that the clock tower is actually working.

The GPO was constructed from 1916 to 1921 and was built in a complex area of 9.5 acres for the cost of Rs 5,07,201.

I of course knew none of this, so to find out I went up to the counter marked "enquiry" and enquired about information on the buildings. I'm not sure they entertain too many enquiries of this kind, but then they finally managed to trace down a plaque fixed on the main door of the GPO (who would have imagined!) with the above information.

A great place to hang around if you are slightly demented like me. Now if onl they would trim the lawn in fornt of the main building, it would make a nice spot for a picnic. :)