Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

750 more structures in heritage list

HYDERABAD: What is common between the Hyderabad Metro Water Works and Sewerage Board building , the entrance to Deccan Engineering College and Darusalam sub-control police station? These structures along with 750 others are in the race to be notified as heritage structures by the State government.

Under a programme launched by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) Hyderabad Chapter, these buildings have been identified following an extensive survey spread over eight months.

With a 500-year-old heritage, Hyderabad known for its historical buildings, monuments, natural landscapes dates back to Kakatiyas, Qutub Shahi, Asaf Jahi dynasties. With the objective of listing and securing such buildings with historical as well as architectural importance, INTACH had started the INTACH-HUDA Listing Programme (IHLP) in February 2007.

So far 750 buildings spread across 24 of 35 wards have been identified. This means, these buildings have the ‘potential for notification’ by the Heritage Conservation Committee. The programme is headed by Shravan Kumar and co-convened by M. Gopalakrishnan.

Briefing The Hindu on the project, M.Vedakumar, project co-ordinator, IHLP said the preliminary stage of the 18-month-project will be completed by December. Talking about abuse of the heritage structures in the city, he says there has never been a culture of protecting built heritage.

“After independence, our heritage was further abused and there has never been an inventory of what we had to know what we lost,” he says adding that there are at least 1,000 more buildings that deserve to be notified.

This list of buildings would then undergo intensive scrutiny at multiple levels by a technical team which consists of experts.

The study is being carried out in accordance with international and national heritage guidelines.

According to Mr.Vedakumar, the comprehensive listing followed by mapping of the heritage buildings will not only remain as a record but also help in better maintenance of these structures.

“We hope to convince the government to give incentives to the owners of these buildings to maintain them,” he says.

The programme will also list buildings with ‘historical’ significance, such as birth of historical figures, important meetings or events which took place etc. Regional festivals such as ‘Bonalu’, ‘Bathukamma’ would also be recorded by INTACH.

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