“Create a master plan for the entire hospital compound and ensure water does not drain towards the historic building. Landscaping of the courtyard, including rainwater harvesting, needs to be planned.”
These are the words from a joint site-inspection report on Osmania General Hospital (OGH) by the Department of Archaeology and Museums and Aga Khan Trust for Culture, accessed by this reporter.
The report, less than a year old, certifies the building’s condition as “structure was stable and in a good state of preservation with no apparent threat of structural failure or collapse.”
The report was done in the immediate aftermath of earlier evacuation of the hospital on November 6, 2019. “Only the terrace needs attention and the landscape will take care of flooding problem,” says an engineer associated with the report dated November 27, 2019.
The forecourt of the hospital, which has the tamarind tree that was a saviour during the 1908 flood, has been turned into a site for parks.
A number of foundation stones and unseemly concrete structures including water cascades and granite flooring have been built around the park. Archival images of the old entrance of the OGH show a few trees and a park that blended with the Musi riverfront garden.
Ignoring the landscape proved to be a bane for the government hospital as the newly-laid road blocked the flow of water.
“We had warned about the level of the road and possibility of water getting accumulated,” says the engineer. The flooding of the hospital ward by this accumulated water fuelled fresh calls to abandon the building.
An earlier report by Indian National Trust for Art and Culture reached the conclusion: “The OGH heritage building is structurally safe and can be made safe for another century, barring any natural and human interventions, if properly maintained after repairs, restoration and retrofitting.”
GO Ms. 102 of March 23, 1998, lists the Osmania General Hospital (OGH) as a Grade IIB building and is a notified protected heritage structure.
Incidentally, a clutch of online petitions and letters to legislators are being circulated by the citizens of Hyderabad to put pressure on officials concerned to halt the demolition of the heritage structure.
Published - July 26, 2020 08:13 am IST
