Facelift on the cards for ancient gateways in Chirag Dilli in South Delhi

The ancient gateways in Chirag Dilli in South Delhi will be getting a facelift and wear a new look. Within another five months time, they will cease to be free of the crush of urbanization. Their heritage is now obscured by commercial signposts and blatant encroachments.
The conservation and upkeep of these 17th century monuments is expected to begin this week. This will be the beginning of efforts to arrest the creeping neglect that has already led to the disappearance of one of the four original gateways.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 29 November 2016.

The conservation work will be undertaken by Intach's Delhi chapter, and will be funded by the department of archaeology of Delhi government. Additional beautification activities are planned and these include the sewerage and shifting of electric wires underground.
Incidentally, Chirag Dilli was originally a fort with four main gates, and for centuries, defined the character of the village. This character is expected to be revived by restoring and beautifying the gates. There are a number of ancient wells in the village and these will be checked if they can also be restored.
Under the first two phases, conservation has been carried out on 32 monuments, including Bara Lao ka Gumbad, Badarpur Gateways, Gol Gumbad and Darwesh Shah ki Masjid. This conservation exercise is part of an agreement between Delhi government and Intach to protect the many historic buildings in the capital that have no legal protection.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


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