Main entrance to Pucca Qila caves in

Fingers pointed at negligence by culture dept during preservation work

HYDERABAD:

The arch-shaped main entrance, a remnant of the once glorious Pucca Qila Fort, built in the 18th century by the Kalhoro Dynasty in Hyderabad, caved in on Thursday during preservation works. No casualties occurred in the incident.

 

“The labourers were carrying out underpinning work with the bricks, when the gate suddenly fell down,” said Sindhu Chandio, an assistant director of the Sindh culture, tourism and antiquities department, speaking to The Express Tribune. She added that she witnessed the incident.

The technical reason for the collapse of the structure is yet to be ascertained. However, some officials and experts who spoke to The Express Tribune suggested that negligence and unprofessional approach adopted during the preservation was the likely reason.

“There was no scaffolding under the arch of the main gate while work under the gate was being executed,” said Hyderabad Deputy Commissioner Fuad Ghaffar Soomro, who visited the site after the incident. “Luckily there was no casualty.”

His stance was seemingly in line with pictures that showed a scaffolding in the wall by the gate’s side but the same was missing under the arch of the entrance gate.

“How could we have placed scaffolding under the arch? It would have disrupted the movement of traffic,” said Chandio, however.

The Pucca Qila fort is inhabited by tens of thousands of people and it happens to be one of the most densely populated localities in Hyderabad. It’s fortification walls are occupied by traders who have opened up shops while houses built along the wall have time and again been issued evacuation notices because of the rickety structures but to no avail. All previous attempts to remove the encroachments have failed.

The political exigencies have also prevented relocation of the entire population inhabiting the fort though a couple of project ideas were floated in this regard in the past.

The ongoing preservation work was being carried out by a private contractor under the supervision of Akhtiar Mangi, executive engineer of the culture department’s Planning and Development Monitoring Implementation Cell (PDMIC). Mangi did not respond to phone calls and could not be reached for his comment.

Chandio said the entrance, which is around 15 feet tall and just as wide, was already crumbling. She complained that she had requested the district administration several times to start an anti-encroachment drive and help the department undertake the preservation scheme, launched under an annual development plan project.

She claimed that some shopkeepers even issued her threats because the structures of their shops were being affected during the preservation work.

The DC, however, denied that they did not cooperate with the culture department and said an anti-encroachment drive was already underway outside the fort. He shared a recent photograph, which showed City taluka Assistant Commissioner Mutahar Ameen Wattoo standing under the same arch that collapsed.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 3^rd, 2021.