Private firm to excavate ancient city
It has been decided to hire private companies and experts to excavate the 5,000-year-old city of Ganweriwala buried in the desert of Cholistan.
Applications will be invited from those interested in excavating this ancient city in the next few days.
An eight-member team of archaeologists has been formed on the instructions of the caretaker chief minister of Punjab.
The team is headed by a former director general of Archeology, Dr. Muhammad Rafiq Mughal. Other team members are the former directors of Archeology -- Salimul Haque, Muhammad Afzal Khan and Maqsood Ahmed -- as well as the incumbent Director of Archeology, Muhammad Hasan, and others.
A team of archeologists visited the ruins of Ganweriwala in the past few days, but the excavation has not started yet.
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Afzal Khan, a senior archaeologist and former director of Punjab Archeology, said that his team would supervise the excavation process, but a private company would be hired to carry out the excavation.
Companies that have the expertise of excavating historical sites will be given the contract.
According to reports, tenders would be invited by the commissioner of Bahawalpur in the next few days for awarding of contracts to private companies.
The remains of Ganweriwala were traced way back in 1975 by Dr. Muhammad Rafiq Mughal, former director general of Punjab Archaeology.
However, no excavations were carried out there until now.
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This is mainly due to lack of resources, non-availability of water and manpower near the site.
Experts believe that Ganweriwala was the third largest city in the Indus Valley after Harappa and Mohenjodaro.
The mounds are located about 60-kms southwest of the Dravidian Fort, between Mohenjodaro and Harappa.
It is 340-kms from Mohenjodaro and 260-kms from Harappa. According to experts, this area was settled on the banks of the River Hakra, and the inhabitants of this city used to cultivate and raise cattle, but now only the ruins of this city and the traces of the River Hakra are visible here.
There are about 500 sites in the Cholistan desert, Ganweriwala being the most important among them.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 18th, 2023.