The landmark Ramgopalpet police station is set to become history, as the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has classified the building as dilapidated and asked the police officials to vacate the 116-year-old building within 24 hours.
“The GHMC officials had inspected the building sometime back, but today Minister Srinivas Yadav, DCP Karunakar Reddy and other officials visited the premises and a notice was served asking the staff to vacate the building,” informed Station House Officer P. Murali Krishna.
“There is seepage in the building and the slab rests on wooden rafters which have degraded over time. At places there is a gap between the slab and wooden rafters. Today, the engineering team of the GHMC inspected the building and served us the notice,” said Mr. Krishna.
The police station is an iconic building with a memorable sepia-tinted street photograph clicked by Raja Deen Dayal showing the clock donated by Seth Ramgopal, the then leading industrialist in Nizam’s territory.
“I don’t think the building needs to be demolished. When we inspected it sometime back, it appeared safe. If other buildings of the same age can be conserved why not this one?” asked Anuradha Reddy convenor of Intach, Hyderabad.
The police station was designated a heritage site in 1998 and the police department had a plan to vacate it and turn it into a police museum.
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