Lokmat News Network
Aurangabad, June 14:
The proverbial saying ‘Better late than never’ proves true as the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), which is the custodian of heritage structure - Town Hall - has undertaken measures to protect and preserve the languishing structure, recently.
The Heritage Conservation Committee (HCC) deserves applause for taking up the matter with the AMC administrator to prevent the heritage from further deterioration. Accordingly, the administrator then directed the officials concerned and then the works got started under the supervision of deputy engineer (Zone I) K N Katkar through a local contractor.
Three-tier preservation plan
According to reliable sources," The total works will be completed in three phases. The first phase of work includes fixing clay roof tiles has been started on top priority due to the onset of the monsoon. The roofers fixed the new tiles on both the North and the South side of the Town Hall. The ridges will be fixed soon to cover the corners of the hexagonal shape-heritage and ensure that the rainwater gets paves a way inside the structure through the tiles or edges. The task of fixing MS grills to all vertical windows will be done in the second phase (probably to start from the next week) and in the last leg, the work of plastering, electrification, brickworks, colouring, painting etc will be completed."
HCC chairman Jayant Deshpande confirmed starting works to preserve the Town Hall. He thanked Aurangabad First (Lokmat Times) for drawing the attention of the heritage committee, experts and AMC officials through stories, pin-pointing the urgent need of preserving the city's heritage on July 1, 2021, and May 6, 2022.
" Indeed, we wanted to get rid of bats and seal their entries. They are damaging the interior of the hall by defecating the walls. I have directed for fixing of the mesh to all the open vertical windows. A meeting with the Archaeological
Survey of India (ASI, Aurangabad Circle) will be fixed to discuss on standard mesh they had used to get rid of bats at different monuments. Town Hall is one of the important heritage structures of the city," stressed the HCC chairman.
Downpour damaged the roof in September
Earlier, the newspaper published the news drawing the attention of the AMC administration and HCC to the sheer negligence towards Town Hall. The news reports also highlighted that due to heavy rainfall in the city on September 28, 2021, the clay roof tiles (Mangalorean type) on the conical-shaped dome of the Town Hall got displaced and damaged. Hence the newspaper expressed its fears that the heritage would witness further deterioration if the HCC and the AMC does not fix tiles before the onset of monsoon season. It took a month, but the HCC took up the matter, discussed it AMC administrator and the work got started on priority.
Features of Project
- 800/900 clay roof tiles/200 ridges brought from Morbi (Gujarat).
- Two roofers from Jalna are pressed on the task.
- All 14 vertical windows (3 feet wide x 5.6 feet in height) will be fixed with MS Grills to prevent the entry of bats.
- Polishing the four main doors of the hall will boost the beauty.
- Preparing fibre moulded triangular-shaped cones (which are the source of light inside the hall) on the apex of the conical dome.
- Town Hall witnessed ‘ Ache Din’ by spending
Rs 50-Rs 60 lakh in the year 2008.
- Heritage experts demanded to fix stainless steel cream mesh to all vertical windows.