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 After stopping demolition of the 127-year-old Hume High School in Byculla last week, the charity commissioner has now given the go ahead for its reconstruction.

Reconstruction work on the landmark school was stopped after members of the Marathi Mission, which operates it, said that the construction was illegal and lacked necessary permissions from authorities.

On Friday, the charity commissioner said reconstruction could continue, stating that the school was in a dilapidated condition and development of the property would benefit it.

According to the deal with the propertys developers, a new four-storeyed school building will be built at a cost of Rs 4 crore. The mission has been promised another Rs 4 crore by the developers for creating a school corpus.

In return, the school will lease out about half the 80,000 square feet property to the builder for constructing a multi-storeyed building with flats that will be sold on the open market.

Though some members of the mission were critical of the trusts plan to demolish the beautiful old school building, S K Solomon, chairman of the Mission said, Except for one block, the building is dilapidated and needed urgent repairs. The annual grant of Rs 30,000 from the government for the buildings maintenance was not enough for repairs.

However, teachers and parents of students continue to be worried that reconstruction will reduce the number of classrooms and other facilities like playgrounds.

But the builders, Neena Farms, have promised to build more classrooms. There will be a larger library and more facilities, said the representative Sabir Nirwan.

Till the new building comes up, classes will be conducted in the blocks that are still to be demolished.

The Hume School

The school land is still owned by Boston-based United Church Board for World Ministries, and is meant for educational purposes only.

However, the charity commissioner has allowed it to be used for commercial purposes.

The school is one of the oldest in the city. It was established by The American Marathi Mission in 1877.