Cracks appeared in the dome at the GPO building in the recent earthquake. PHOTO: ABID NAWAZ/EXPRESS
The building is bounded by The Mall and Nabha Road. The construction plan for the Orange Line Metro Train includes an underground station on the latter.
Conservationist Yasmeen Lari says the government needs to commission a study on the impact of digging work on the foundations of the GPO building. She says that the study should be undertaken and its findings made public before start of work. “The government needs to ensure transparency about the manner in which construction work will be carried out near the building,” she says.
Lari, who had led a conservation project for the GPO building in the 1980s, says appearance of cracks in the central dome following the October 26 earthquake indicates that its foundations are already weakened. She says there is need, therefore, for taking extra precaution.
Former Lahore Museum director Dr Saifur Rahman Dar agrees with Lari. He says that the construction plan for the train should be vetted by the Archeology Department.
Chief Engineer Khalid Alvi says the construction team is using techniques that would prevent any damage to the building.
He says construction work will take place approximately 12 metres away from the GPO building. “This is a safe distance. We will be using pilings to prevent any damage to the foundations,” he says.
About the demolition of the outer wall of the building, he says the wall would be reconstructed once construction work was complete.
Archaeology Department deputy director Afzal Khan says the department is holding meetings with LDA officials to discuss a plan for protection of all heritage sites along the route of the train.
Meanwhile, the GPO Employees’ Association is trying to persuade the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) to revise the train’s route and move it away from Nabha Road. The association spokesperson says the matter was raised at a recent meeting with the Lahore commissioner. He says the commissioner has yet to get back to them with a response.
The GPO is a protected building under the Punjab Special Premises Ordinance of 1985 and the Antiquities Act of 1975 (the act prohibits construction work within 200 feet of a heritage site).
It was built by the then British government to house its postal services staff. It was built in the Anglo-Mughal style of architecture common to several buildings constructed by the British in the later part of the nineteenth century.
Lari says the use of Anglo-Mughal style was deliberate. “The British wanted to present themselves as heirs to the Mughals,” she says. The use of indigenous elements could also be part of an effort to placate growing nationalist sentiments, she adds.
She says John Lockwood Kipling, father of Rudyard Kipling, had played an important role in development of the style.
The 1980s conservation effort had started after a fire damaged the building. Almost 179, 000 bricks used in the restoration work were obtained from a building constructed during the same era as the GPO. Earlier, the original brick structure had been painted over in the 1970s.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 4th, 2015.
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