HYDERABAD: Paradoxes define Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. While Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu plans to build a swanky new capital, Amravati, for his state, his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao-led TRS seems to be uncomfortable with the past it never had as a new state. Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mahmood Ali recently declared that the Charminar will be razed if it becomes weak, instead of the usual reaction to restoring a national monument. Similarly, the controversy over the demolition of Osmania General Hospital (OGH) is another example of this confusion.
Conservation architects and heritage activists are suggesting alternative plans to construct a new hospital near OGH without dismantling the old structure. One of the reasons cited by health department officials for pulling down the building was Heritage Conservation Committee’s (HCC) by-law that any new building should not dominate the historic building. Another reason was Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University’s report which stated repairs will preserve the structure only for five years.
GSV Suryanarayana Murthy, a conservation architect, who submitted a report in the year 2013 to HCC, on construction of new buildings at OGH, said, “It can be done but requires artistic and technical exploration of space available there. Artists will find how the history is visible from the Musi river, visibility of backdrop. Space available inside, number of beds, departments, in the new building have to be looked into.”
He added that if the plan is handled intelligently, 12 to 15 acres of land is easily available at OGH, without disturbing the historic building and the tamarind tree which saved 150 lives during Musi floods in 1908. Architecture and Design Foundation (India) CEO G Srinivas Murthy said that priority should be to save the age-old building. “HCC bylaws state the space between new and the old building should be 100 feet. But if the choice is between demolition of the building, and compromising on the bylaws, then we are ready to compromise,” said Murthy, who is also executive committee member of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage’s Hyderabad Chapter.
Reacting to the flak from civic and heritage activists, Health Minister C Laxma Reddy said that priority is to shift patients from In-Patient block of OGH, and a decision on demolition of the structure will be taken later. Asked if a heritage committee would be formed to ascertain the strength of the building, he said, “We will decide on it after shifting the patients”. Reddy also stated that construction of towers there is certain. “Reports of engineering experts stated that regardless of the amount spent, and repairs, it will not last for long time,” he said.