In Delhi Police’s new HQ, a throwback to the late ’60s

It was in December 1975 that the Delhi Police headquarters moved to Indraprastha Marg from Kashmere Gate.

For now, only four storeys are ready, said a police officer. “Construction work began in 2016 and in another three-four months, all departments will move to the new headquarters,” said DCP (PRO) Mandeep Singh Randhawa. From November 1, Patnaik, the Special CPs and the Joint CPs will be working from the new building.

DCP (Land and Building) MA Rizvi said the new headquarters has space for over 800 vehicles. For the last 15 days, at least 40 SHOs and six Additional DCPs have been working out of the new building.

Vipin Kental, director, DFS, said the building will get a fire NOC when it is ready. “Right now, it’s under-construction and not under our purview.”

It was in December 1975 that the Delhi Police headquarters moved to Indraprastha Marg from Kashmere Gate. “The Indraprastha Marg building is not owned by Delhi Police and is shared with the PWD. We are in need of more space and that’s why the shift,” said a police officer.

Before the towering PHQ on Indraprastha Marg, which got a giant Mahatma Gandhi mural in 2014, the police headquarters was located at Kashmere Gate, near the single-screen Ritz Cinema. The first-ever headquarters — a single-storey building — was set up at that address in 1912. During his tenure, Kumar worked from both Kashmere Gate and Indraprastha building offices. “I was Assistant Inspector General-2 in the ‘70s when the then DIG

P S Bhinder got the new building allotted. I was in-charge of chalking out offices for various departments and spent many days at the new building before the move,” he said.

Kumar said the Delhi Police manual was written at the Kashmere Gate office. “The building was called central police office at the time and not the Delhi Police headquarters as the police here came under the Punjab police. Space was an issue at the first-ever office, so a control room was set up on Alipur Road. In the late ‘60s, it was proposed that a new headquarters be built at Jai Singh Marg,” he said.

Kumar said that models were built with the help of Delhi government architects and shown to the then-LG and Home Secretary. “BSF was headed by Khusro Faramurz Rustamji, who was a legend, and he too was eying the Jai Singh Marg plot where we wanted the headquarters… none of us got it but over 50 years later, the Delhi Police will finally have the address we had envisioned then. What joy,” said Kumar.