Mehmood Darwaza: Apathy of civic officials forcing heritage gate to meet premature death

Aurangabad, July 9:

The heritage gate - Mehmood Darwaza (Gate) - is in the custodianship of Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). It is located at a distance of stone's throw from heritage monument Panchakki. However, the apathy of its custodian is forcing the gate to die a slow death as the AMC is making formal announcements for the past three years about its plan to conserve the heritage gate, but the works had not yet started in reality. As a result, if immediate action is not taken then the gate would be converted into the debris of stones.

It so happened that due to heavy rainfall on Thursday night, a couple of stone blocks got disjointed and its plaster also got peeled off from various spots. Incidentally, no untoward incident had taken place. There is heavy traffic on this route. The deterioration of the gate is growing each day, but the civic authorities lack the vision to protect it on priority.

As reported earlier, the Aurangabad Smart City Development Corporation Limited (ASCDCL) is conserving nine gates of the city by spending a fund of Rs 4 crore. However, the Mehmood Darwaza is not included in it. Many times, the heavy motor and light motor vehicles would use to pass through this gate, located in a cross direction, and get stuck. Hence, the AMC to prevent the deterioration of the gate and passing of LMVs and HMVs had fixed an arch-shaped steel frame from the inner side of the gate.

Four days ago, one big size tempo hit the steel frame. On Thursday afternoon, one JCB driver hit another side of the steel frame. The frame got damaged. The AMC's ward engineer visited the place as a part of formality. However, due to rainfall in the evening and the night, the deterioration of the gate got increased. The stone blocks got disjointed and fell on the road, along with the plaster. Presently, the traffic has been stopped on this route. The pedestrians are using the road. However, it is being said that the AMC is falling short in protecting and conserving the heritage gate by deploying experts. It is for sure that if the rainfall continues, further deterioration of the gate would lead to forming debris of stones!