HYDERABAD: An Expert Committee recently submitted a report before the Telangana High Court recommending the demolition and reconstruction of the 90-year-old Hill Fort Palace (Ritz Hotel) in Adarsh Nagar, citing structural instability as the reason. However, according to INTACH’s structural condition assessment reports from 2017 and most recently from 2022, the palace is not structurally unsound and can be restored.
The INTACH team, which included convener P Anuradha Reddy, as well as a group of structural consultants and conservation architects, visited the Hill Fort Palace twice. They found the foundation and substructure level elements were in good condition and only needed minor repairs. However, the superstructure, which includes walls, beams, pillars and a roof, required special attention.
Negligence by lessee
According to the INTACH team, negligence on the part of the lessee for over a decade, including incomplete civil works and a lack of maintenance, has led to further deterioration of both structural and non-structural elements of the heritage building.
During their visits, the INTACH team created detailed sketches of the various sections of the Hill Fort Palace and also collected a few drawings from the Telangana State Tourism Development Corporation (TSTDC), which is the custodian of the heritage structure.
The INTACH team suggested several modifications, including dismantling and rebuilding the upper roof parapets and re-strengthening the walls using proper technical methods. These modifications would make the walls stable and capable of carrying weight.
According to the report by the INTACH team, the Hill Fort Palace is designed with load-bearing walls, which support the roofing system. Therefore, the removal of existing walls should not be allowed, and repairs should be taken up for issues such as the peeling of plaster and erosion of bricks, it added.
After reviewing the existing roofs, the INTACH team found that they were all in poor condition and in need of repair. However, the team noted that the wood components of the windows throughout the structure appeared to be in good condition. They suggested that the windows could be salvaged with the replacement of certain sub-components such as sills, bottom rails of the lower sash and lower portions of frames.
The team of architects also recommended testing the economic viability of adaptive reuse opportunities. They felt that the sustainability of the structure’s use could be reinforced by expanding the gross area to provide additional complementary uses to the design model. This expansion could be phased out with the help of field experts following heritage codes.
The INTACH team suggested that the work of rehabilitating the Hill Fort Palace could be taken up by the State government itself or through a PPP model. Alternatively, prestigious firms could be handed the responsibility of investing in, designing, building and maintaining the building as a safe, durable, and iconic heritage structure once again.
“Despite our recommendations for restoring the heritage structure, it appears that the State government is in a rush to demolish it, as it has done in many other cases. We are uncertain if the respondent in the case (TSTDC) is truly representing the heritage structure in the matter,” commented one of the architects who conducted the structural assessments of the building twice.
The Telangana High Court has set a deadline of June 27 for the State government to communicate its decision on whether it intends to reconstruct the building or repurpose it for other uses.