HYDERABAD: Badi Baoli, one of the biggest heritage step wells in Hyderabad at the Qutb Shahi tombs campus, was open to public after restoration on Tuesday.
IT minister KT Rama Rao, who claimed to have never visited the park, on Tuesday inaugurated the step well, which is now open for public view.
“We should try and make it a World Heritage Site. Every Hyderabadi should come here and look at its glory. I have been here for the past 40 years, but this is the first time I am visiting,” he shared and urged officials to expedite the process.
Badi Baoli is one of the 75 monuments within the premises of the seven tombs that has been restored and will be conserved. This will be done as part of an MoU that was signed by the Department of Archaeology and Museums of TS and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture to undertake a 10-year conservation plan.
The Baoli had weakened and restoration work started in 2011. In 2013, the stone work below the arcade caved in and the structure needed urgent repairs.Heavy rains in 2013 led to collapse of the wall on the western side of the step well, that is in the form of a quadrangle. Soon after, the MoU was signed and work began.
The well already had 20 lakh litres of water and that was pumped out and fed into the adjoining step wells, letting the Badi Baoli to dry.
Once this was done, the craftsmen had to meet with the huge challenge, as the rest of the structure was also at the risk of collapsing.
The year 2014 was entirely dedicated to laying the base, allowing it to settle. An alternate water channel was built to the west of the Baoli and using archived photographs of the structure the arcade was reconstructed.