Chowmahalla Palace in Hyderabad faces sewage threat

By M H Ahssan

Here’s a palace leak and stink, literally. Some unidentified persons on Tuesday made a large hole in the rear compound wall of Chowmahalla Palace, the 200-year-old legacy of the Nizams, to dispose of the stagnant sewage water accumulated for months, through the palace.

The filthy stockpile from the houses located around the palace gushed through the hole into the palace and has created a deep ditch near Roshan Bangla, located in the northern courtyard of the palace.

In fact, last August the 30-feet high boundary wall near the Roshan Bangla of the mahal had collapsed after bearing the stagnant water for long and a heavy rain did it in. Though the palace authorities reconstructed it, now, some miscreants made a hole in the wall.

With houses mushrooming behind and on the sides of the palace - a replica of the Shah’s palace in Tehran, Iran - sans a drainage pipeline, the palace authorities say that large scale dampness has come in the walls. “There are no drainage lines in the houses located in the surroundings of the palace, which were constructed a few years ago. Water is percolating along the wall. The GHMC should lay sewage lines. We have forwarded a petition to the GHMC following Tuesday’s incident to save the heritage property,” Chowmahalla Palace director G Kishan Rao said.

Prince Mukarram Jah himself had given a representation to the GHMC seven years back to connect the drainage lines for the illegal constructions adjacent to the palace as they could cause harm to the palace, said Rao. However, no works were taken up.

Further, the entrance of Roshan Bangla is an eyesore with drainage water overflowing in its frontage with a stink emanating in the open area and spoiling the healthy surroundings of the mahal. Water is also stagnating in the Ashoor Khana.

Roshan Bangla was where Mir Mahboob Ali Khan, the sixth Nizam lived and is named after his mother Roshan Ara Begum. While the Bangla is not open for the public, it stocks exquisite furniture, showcases, dhurries and other belongings of the erstwhile rulers which are of immense historic value.