India, March 7 -- In 2023, Delhi's oldest surviving police chowki - an early 19th century structure at Sarai Rohilla - was restored to its former glory by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). A year-and-a-half after its restoration, the structure that is known as Barh ki Chowki still awaits its occupants, and lies unattended.

Believed to have been built in the early 1800s, Barh ki Chowki served as a police post from 1923 to 1963 for the Sabzi Mandi police station, and eventually fell into disrepair. Neglected and forgotten, it was "rediscovered" by a police officer who was researching a coffee table book for the force, and INTACH and National Culture Fund took up its restoration in March 2022.

HT has learnt ...