The Charminar is once again reverberating to the rat-rat-rat noise of pneumatic drills for the past six days as a botched tile-laying process led to water stagnation on the south-west side of the 425-year-old monument. When workers drilled through an 8-inch concrete slab, just 4 metres from the fencing, the rattle could be felt inside the monument.
“The State government wants a Unesco World Heritage Site tag for Charminar and other sites in the city. But it is going about the maintenance in a ham-handed manner. It has to create an independent authority that can take a call on these kind of interventions,” said a senior Archaeological Survey of India official.
The ASI has raised the issue about the noise level and the pipeline work as part of the ongoing pedestrianisation work around Charminar with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.
The drilling is being done to lay 315-mm pipelines and three grille covers for the water to drain away. “It is not yet been one month that they had to remove the tiles and carry out the repair work as the water was stagnating there,” said Abdul Saleem, a resident of the area, pointing to the location where the drill was in operation.
Shopkeepers and visitors have made a number of complaints about the uneven tiles and water stagnation.
“It is nothing to be worried about. The tiles got disturbed when they were being laid due to protests by the hawkers and vendors which has led to water stagnation. We are setting it right and have added three more grille covers to drain the water from the area,” said a senior GHMC official supervising the work there.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has put up a board stating: “Rectification work of water stagnation location in buffer zone”. In Parliament, the Opposition parties led by the Congress demanded the proposed amendment to The Ancient Monument and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act of 1958 be referred to a select Rajya Sabha Committee before it is passed.
The bill passed by the Lok Sabha seeks to ease norms for development and infrastructure activities within the 100-metre zone.
