HYDERABAD: ‘Sardar Mahal’, which houses Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) south zone office, will soon be converted into a heritage museum by the department of tourism as part of the Charminar pedestrianisation project (CPP). The Mahal will be restored to its former glory at a cost of Rs 2.5 crore.

Declared as a heritage building by the Heritage Conservation Committee and Intach, the Mahal is in a bad shape due to poor maintenance.

“Once the Taj group takes over Falaknuma Palace, there will be very few museums in the city. So keeping this in mind, we have decided to convert Sardar Mahal into a museum,” Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) additional commissioner (Planning & Projects) K Dhanunjaya Reddy told ‘TOI’. The GHMC office would be shifted to a building in Darulshifa. The Sardar Mahal was built in European style by Nizam VI Mir Mahboob Ali Khan in 1900 for one of his favourite wives, Sardar Begum. The building subsequently took her name.

Recently, the Union government had sanctioned Rs 9.94 crores for the Charminar pedestrianisation project to the tourism department. From these funds, the restoration work would be taken up. “A monitoring committee to monitor physical and financial progress of the sanctioned project has been formed,” department of tourism’s director K V Reddy told ‘TOI’. The Mahal, in which the Nizam stayed for a brief while, was initially given on rent to the Charminar Unani Hospital and later the City Civil Court operated out of it. The municipal corporation took the premises on rent. However, in 1962, the erstwhile MCH bought it and set up a permanent base there.

“Within two months, road widening work for the CPP will be over. After that, the traffic coming towards Charminar will be diverted towards Mehboob Chowk and Mitti Ka Sher. And the works relating to creation of the buffer zone, laying of pebbled stone road will commence,” Dhanunjaya Reddy said. The GHMC has acquired 1,200 sq yards of land, including the Traffic Police Station, Charminar, to set up facilities for the convenience of tourists and the night bazaar. Also, the shops in the Lad Bazaar area would be given an ethnic look reminiscent of the past and street furniture will also be put up along with kiosks and other facilities, K V Reddy added. 

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