Plan to restore Hyderabad’s Sardar Mahal gets State govt nod

The plan to revive and restore the popular Sardar Mahal in the old city, has been approved by the State government.

Hyderabad: The plan to revive and restore the popular Sardar Mahal in the old city, has been approved by the State government.

Located close to Charminar, the 122 year-old heritage palace will be developed on the lines of Neemrana Fort Palace of Rajasthan, and will get equipped with a cultural center that will have a gallery, studio, cafe and heritage accommodation. The works are to be taken up in a tripartite agreement between Telangana government, Quli Qutub Shah Urban Development Authority (QQSUDA) and Kalakriti Art Gallery.

Once developed as a cultural centre, Sardar Mahal will showcase the history of the region through maps, paintings and pictures and other artwork. The new look will be the same as the earlier building and the plan is to give a new lease of life by restoring its original grandeur, said officials of the Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) department.

On Sunday, MA&UD Special Chief Secretary Arvind Kumar on Twitter announced that The Telangana government has finalised the revival and restoration plan for Sardar Mahal. The restoration plan has been finalised after a detailed site survey and financial feasibility study. Market assessment and project concept formulation was also done as a part of the exercise.

For years, Sardar Mahal was also used by the officials of the civic body who had set up the GHMC South Zone office in that building.

Sardar Mahal built by Nizam VI Mir Mahboob Ali Khan in 1900 was also declared as a heritage building by the Heritage Conservation Committee and Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage.

This 122-year-old palace which once ranked high among the list of places to visit for those coming to Hyderabad was neglected by the previous governments and some portions of the building also became structurally weak.

The present government took timely precautionary measures to safeguard it and now the exercise is for the building to regain its past glory.

Meanwhile, an action plan is also being prepared to restore Khursheed Jah Devdi located close, about 2 km, to Sardar Mahal.