Delhi's oldest police post restored, but neglected

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).

- Hemani Bhandari

NEW DELHI: A year-and-a-half later, the structure, known as Barh ki Chowki, still awaits its occupants.

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. It was "rediscovered" by a police officer in 2006 while researching a coffee table book for the force, and Intach and National Culture Fund took up its restoration in 2022.

HT has learnt that the post was to be inaugurated on the Delhi Police Raising Day — observed annually on February 16 — in 2024, and then in 2025. However, it was postponed on both occasions.

A police officer aware of the delay said, "It was postponed due to unforeseen circumstances."