For close to 150 years, Ramlila has been performed at Diwan Mandir in Kacchi Chhawani, in the heart of Jammu's old city. The hall that hosts it has aged along with the tradition. On 26 August, the Jammu Municipal Corporation laid the foundation stone for a ₹2.62 crore project to bring it up to date without erasing what makes it the venue it is.
The foundation stone was laid by BJP MLA Yudhvir Sethi, in the presence of JMC Commissioner Devansh Yadav. The project is funded entirely through the corporation's own CAPEX budget — no state or central grant involved — and comes to ₹262.50 lakh.
What's actually changing
The renovation covers the practical things that decide whether a community hall gets used or avoided: comprehensive civil works, new carpeting, modular seating, full air-conditioning, CCTV surveillance, a proper fire-fighting system, and a modern audio setup. None of it touches the building's historical character, which JMC has been explicit about preserving alongside the upgrade.
Sethi framed the project as giving the area "a better venue for social, cultural and community activities," while Yadav described it as part of JMC's broader push on "improving public infrastructure" while "preserving and enhancing the cultural character" of sites like this one. No completion date has been announced yet.
Why a Ramlila hall matters this much
Diwan Mandir isn't dressed up as a heritage site for tourists — it's a working community space that happens to be old. The Ramlila performed there predates independence, and generations of families in the old city have grown up going to it at the same address every year. A hall with reliable air-conditioning, working fire safety and seating that doesn't fall apart is the difference between that tradition continuing comfortably and it slowly losing its audience to venues with better facilities.
It also fits into a pattern the city's heritage sites have been following this year — Mubarak Mandi's decades-long restoration finally moving forward, the Raghunath Bazar heritage trail opening on foot, Basohli Fort and Samba's Uttarvehini getting restoration funding. Diwan Mandir is smaller and more local than any of those, which is arguably the point: it is the kind of heritage upgrade that serves a neighbourhood's actual cultural life rather than a tourism brochure.
What to watch
JMC has not published a construction timeline or said whether the auditorium will close during the work — worth checking before planning an event there. We'll update this once the corporation confirms a schedule.
