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On the brink of danger

Charminar, the soul of Hyderabad, needs to be saved

Mir Ayoob Ali Khan,TNN | Sep 7, 2014 The Times of India

The Charminar is the Telangana state emblem.

The ageing historic Charminar structure is under attack from a growing volume of vehicular traffic around it and an alarmingly high level of pollution that are together inflicting debilitating blows on its foundation and the building itself.

The iconic building remains on the brink of danger.

The Charminar Pedestrianisation Project (CPP) was conceived with the stated objective of protecting the monument by creating new lifelines in the entire heritage precinct and reducing pressure on those that have aged and become narrow. But the implementation of the project has been so painfully slow that instead of providing relief it has become a burden now.

To restore Charminar to its past glory, all its stakeholders—the residents, business community, hawkers, and regular pedestrians—have to be taken on board. At the same time GHMC needs to be declared the nodal agency for CPP with no other government being allowed to take up any work in the precinct, without clearance from the civic body.

The fact that the CPP has become dated should be taken into account and accordingly revised with the help of experts from within and outside the city. Inputs from public representatives should also be taken seriously. Incidentally, the MIM which has been accused in the past of blocking the implementation of the CPP has come out openly in its support. The detailed meeting of GHMC officials with MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi, Charminar MLA Ahmed Pasha Quadri and Mayor Majid Hussain held recently is reflective of the same.

MIM insiders say that the party is keen on ensuring the completion of the CPP in the next couple of years as it has started to believe that the entire precinct would not only become an attractive tourist destination but also turn into a bigger business hub, once the project is finished.

Some businessmen who have expressed concerns about the implementation of the project in its present form feel that rushing its implementation without revising the plan would sound the death knell for business in the area. In fact, one among them pointed out how the once buzzing cloth market near Madina Junction is already dying, courtesy the chaotic traffic that has become a deterrent for shoppers.

They believe, when the road from Madina Junction to Charminar is closed down for vehicular traffic, as has been envisaged by in the CPP, the outer ring road from Darushifa to Hari Bowli would not be able to bear the additional load of traffic. Thus, GHMC planners will have to come up with an alternate arterial road plan. Moreover, shutting down the Madina Junction-Charminar road, without providing transportation for shoppers, would be like closing down the entire market, traders rue.

But intelligent planning, these businessmen add, could open up new avenues around Charminar and facilitate expansion of establishments, particularly on the Khilwat Road leading to Chowk, Moosa Bowli and Hussaini Alam.

What the CPP also needs to focus on is on creating a network of roads, to facilitate traffic mobility without causing inconvenience to the public and provide ample parking space. A multi-level parking area has been identified in Khilwat.

[Between the mid-1990s and 2014] the GHMC has been able to lay cobble stone only on one side of Charminar up to Sardar Mahal. Three other sides remain as bad as they were before.

Fabled Charminar

Amarnath K. Menon , Faulty Towers “India Today” 1/9/2016

Come the holy month of Ramadan and Hyderabad unfailingly spruces up its iconic Charminar. Even roads radiating from the monument are shut on two days - jummat ul vida (the last Friday of the month) and on Eid - for the faithful to offer prayers, transforming the area into a hallowed precinct. For the rest of the year, though, the graceful granite, lime and mortar masterpiece is a glorified traffic island except for the odd 'monument' reference on the crackling city traffic police wireless network.

Yet, for all the neglect, traffic chaos and pollution, the Charminar is still one of the biggest draws for those visiting the city. Way back in 1993, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), its custodian, and the local civic authorities had initiated measures, in what was billed as the Charminar Pedestrianisation Project (CPP), to decongest the area and make its environs a tourist-friendly plaza. But for over a decade, the CPP was a project on paper, and thereafter a slow work in progress. Successive governments have done their best to stall the CPP, mostly at the behest of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), which is opposed to the relocation of shops and streetside vendors, necessary to give the area some aesthetic appeal. Then, in 2010, after AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi inaugurated the project, work gathered pace only to be interrupted by local activists of the party in connivance with businessmen and touts, who have encroached onto the four approach roads.

Now, in a big shift, after the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi captured the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) in February this year, K.T. Rama Rao, son of the Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao, has decided to implement the CPP vigorously as part of efforts to "rebrand Hyderabad".

But the task has only grown more formidable. Much of the earlier work has come to naught. Most shops, particularly on the westward road from Charminar to the lacquer bangles market of Lad Bazaar, have once again been edged forward onto the road (shopkeeprs had parted with some land earlier hoping the CPP's early completion would help their businesses). Towards the north, the four arches around the Gulzar Houz fountain, known as Char Kaman, have again been encroached upon and are in serious disrepair. To the south, the road leading to Mecca Masjid continues to be clogged with pushcart vendors and street hawkers. It is only to the east, leading to the Sardar Mahal, that the widened road is relatively free of encroachers.

The plying of vehicles and the digging for PWD work has ruined portions of the natural granite road and the paver blocks on the kerbs that are to serve as walkways. The stone arch facade on both sides of the road from the north has also lost its appeal, with shopkeepers having painted it in all sorts of colours. The Charminar itself has been the victim of monumental neglect, except for the occasional coat of lime plaster to conceal the warts and scars on what was built as an architectural marvel by Mohammed Quli Qutb Shah in 1591 to commemorate the founding of the city. The ASI has worked tirelessly, but even then, the stucco work and lime and mortar have paled or peeled off, blackening its surface in many sections. Pollution has been a big culprit, more so as the minar serves as a traffic roundabout. "The conservation of Charminar is a continuum, all stakeholders have to be on the same page. A monument needs breathing space in keeping with its visual integrity," says Nizamuddin Taher, superintending archaeologist, ASI.

Rama Rao knows the odds. "We want to introduce battery-operated autorickshaws to address the transport concerns while minimising pollution. We also need more tourist facilities-food courts, parking and toilets. We are meeting all the stakeholders and sorting out issues in a phased manner," says the minister, admitting that, "[absolute] cooperation is a must for the project to come to fruition." Though he has publicly declared that the CPP will be completed by October, it appears unlikely now.

The CPP is up against huge challenges. Some property owners are still holding out with stay orders from courts, refusing to surrender land to widen the inner and outer ring roads through which all vehicular traffic flows (the plan is to leave a 5,000 square metre buffer zone around the monument). The land acquisition process is a constant irritant for the GHMC. Eleven properties along the 2.3 km Inner Ring Road and 18 skirting the 5.4 km Outer Ring Road remain to be acquired. "[The] widening of the Inner Ring Road to 40 feet and Outer Ring Road to 60 feet is to ensure that all polluting vehicles keep a minimum distance of 100 metres from the Charminar," says GHMC commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy. Then there are the small masjids and temples that have to be relocated to allow free vehicular flow.

AIMIM chief Owaisi says, "[Building] the multi-storeyed parking lot, restoring the stone arches along Pathargatti and having uniform-sized signboards in common colours and material are important to develop it tastefully, conforming to international standards." But he is also adamant on the issue of street hawkers. "It's in line with the national policy of protecting their livelihoods, [as well as] appreciating them as being part of the local ethos," he says. But completing the CPP, besides offering a full view of the monument from a distance, would also mean that the area will have to be free of hawkers. Until a deadline is fixed to realise these aims, the Charminar will continue to suffer, and remain a blot on the city's claims of caring for its heritage.