Monday is a special day: it marks the golden jubilee of the Coffee Board of India’s move to the building opposite Visveswaraya Towers on Vidhana Veedhi.

It was shifted on July 1, 1963 from Prithvi Buildings on Kempe Gowda Road. The board will hold the celebrations in October.

Autonomous body

The Coffee Board of India is an autonomous body set up under an Act of Parliament in 1942 and serving the coffee industry in the country. Its basic focus is on research, development, extension and quality upgrading in addition to consolidating market information and the domestic and external promotion of coffee.

In addition to encouraging consumption of the beverage in the country and abroad, the board also runs 12 India Coffee Houses, including the one on its premises and depots across the country.

According to A.N. Balaram, who was the secretary of the board when the new building was constructed, K. Srinivasan, who was chairperson of the board, was determined to make sure the board had a building to function from. He persuaded the then Chief Minister Kengal Hanumanthaiya to sanction land and succeeded in getting land from City Improvement Trust Board. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Union Minister for Commerce and Industries, laid the foundation stone for the building on February 21, 1959.

T.S. Narayana Rao was the chief architect of the building and Purushottam and Company executed the project. Approximately Rs. 35 lakh was spent on the construction. “Though the building was unofficially occupied on July 1, 1963, it was formally inaugurated by the then President S. Radhakrishnan on October 9, 1963,” he told The Hindu .

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Bangalore – July 01st, 2013