Amar Singh College Srinagar | Amar Singh College History and More.

 Amar Singh College Srinagar  a UNESCO Asia Pacific Awardee college . 

Amar Singh College,one of the most important and pioneer institutional  buildings in UT of J&K (India)based in Kashmir & in essence a built  heritage  asset that invokes pride in much of the academic and intellectual community of Kashmir  has been recognized with  a prestigious award of merit in 2020 United Nations Educational,Scientific and cultural organization(UNESCO) Asia-Pacific  awards for cultural heritage conservation.

Amar Singh College is the 2nd oldest Academic and Professional college in Kashmir Valley after Sri Partap Singh College that was established in 1913 and this historical building is one of the seven conservation projects that has been recognized with 2020 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for cultural heritage conservation.It is a premier Post graduate college of UT of Jammu and Kashmir built nearly 80 years ago and in essence a building heritage  asset that invokes pride in much of the academic and intellectual community of Kashmir as many luminaries are alumnus of this institution. Besides  high quality architecture, the building also boasts  of same wall murals in 2 of its hail ways. 

It always appears  that these murals which are influenced  by the Ladakhi art, formed a significant part of this historical building, interiors but it had become obliterated over the time. Extant samples of these wall murals can be seen in the adjacent rooms to the foyer in the first floor.

48 projects  with diverse entries  and typology were submitted by nine countries in UNESCO & the jury consisting 9 international conservation experts was convened on November 20-22/2020 online  due to Covid-19 pandemic to deliberate the project entries that were received collectively to represent a significant achievement in the progress of conservation in the Asia-Pacific region  by INTACH'S(Indian National Trust for Art and Culture Heritage) J&K chapter.

This year's specialty was  that Jury awarded 2 special recognition for sustainable development , one award of Excellence, one Award of Distinction, three awards of merit and one Award of New Design in Heritage contexts.The INTACH'S  Chapter  in UT of J&K had carried out conservation as well as restoration work of Amar Singh College, backbone of the most prominent institutional buildings in J&K  to its original form.The project teams meticulous attention to original buildings design and material involved imparting training to young generation of building artisans in brick and stone masonry that was completely led by  INTACH Kashmir Chapter with the active  support of the Government & a group of community stake holders, the projects serves as unique model for safeguarding a historical 20th century architectural asset and most interesting thing is that he building was renovated using the original material the building was constructed from that is laudable in all forms. The project was successfully implemented with active support and co-operation of college authorities, Department of Higher Education Government of Jammu and Kashmir(UT). 

While recognizing  the prestigious Award, the UNESCO Asian Pacific Jury said " The restoration of Amar Singh college brought back one of the most prominent institutional buildings in Kashmir to its former glory under taken with High technology, the project reversed major deterioration resulting from years of in-appropriate additions, poor maintenance and catastrophic events such as the unprecedented flooding in 2014 & jury also said that the project served as a noteworthy model for safeguarding  a unique 20th- Century  architectural asset in the Victorian neighborhood of the old city of Srinagar.The role of Amar Singh college administration for preserving this old historical college building till date to its pristine glory  is also praise worthy  that has brought laurels for people of India in general and  Jammu and Kashmir  in particular  worldwide.  

It's brief History : 

Amar Singh College Srinagar is considered to as 2nd oldest College in the Kashmir Valley after Amar Singh College. This college was established in the year of 1913 to impart education to students in different streams of art, culture, basics like mansonsary and carpentary. This college was formally opened on 29th May, 1914 by Maharaja Partap Singh. In the year, 1942, this technical institution was converted into Amar Singh College through bifurcation of Sri Partap Singh commerating the name of the father of Shri Hari Singh. The college was recognised by University Grants Commission in the year 1972 and got NAAC accredited with B++ on June 9th 1972.

This historical and one of the pinoer institutions of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is located in Wazir Bagh in the city of Srinagar in kashmir. It is spread over an area of about 35 hectares of land divided into a large play ground, parks, gardens and an infrastructural areas. But presently this college has a multiple academic buildings making a total built up area about 3000 square meters. 

This college is well equipped with a big library having about 70,000 books including collections of rare books in it. This college offers undergraduate courses in science, arts, commerce, computer applications and post graduate studies in Geography. This college also imparts UGC sponsored add on job oriented courses in information Technology, video editing, computer applications and web designing. This college is also considered as one of the special study center of IGNOU.

From : 

Team Panaromicspots.

Read more  tinyurl.com/4byk4323