Charminar Opens to Public - Good or Bad?

[RP]

Charminar has a special place in Hyderabad\'s history. It is one of the few historically significant pieces of architecture that remains in a stable condition today in almost all of India. It has faced the wrath of noise pollution from the poorly planned and poorly managed environment created by our venerable APSRTC. It has withstood a total lack of environmental and basic routine maintenance even a 10 year old house deserves - thanks to our politicians who would like to showcase it yet pay little attention to this crown jewel of our Bhagyanagar. I am for one for everybody to enjoy it. That would have been a good thing a few decades ago. Imagine the stress each person loads up this 400 year-old monument with each time they step on it? Imagine the number of steps each person takes times the number who visit each day times the number of days it has to bear the brunt? Has anybody evaluated the structural feasibility of this monument to carry loads each day? 5 rupees for what? The government and the so-called Archaeological agencies in India should immediately stop this non-sense, check every square inch of this monument, improve its structural capacity and then let people in. In and am sure you all too, will be heart-broken if - god forbid - this monument begins to crack and fall apart. As a kid, about 15 years ago, I remember reading in The Hindu that Charminar was already showing signs of structural degradation. I am worried. I hope this monument is alive for me to show it to my kids and to theirs. A plausible solution is to regulate traffic into the monument. 100 people a day. Buy tickets in advance. Constant eye towards the safety of Charminar, not that of people alone. May god save the centerpiece of the showcase that decorates our great city.

[kkk]

its very good for the economy, they should raise the fee from rs 5 to 30 or 35 that way they can maintain the building from the revenue and keep it nice and clean.


~kkk~

[RP]

Partially agree with you KKK. The question though is will the extra revenue be actually funneled to help reinstate the structural integrity or siphoned off by our political system. I would lean toward the latter. The government is already supposed to allocate funds for archaeological preservation of historic monuments. Isn\'t that the money that should be used? Assuming that the moneys generate by the stampede to help maintain the structure is like putting the cart before the horse.

[hyderabadi]

Good that they have opened charminar to the public place.The people in the old city got more place for riots.Now they can stand on the charminar and start throwing bombs and shoot people.

[anita]

Charminar is in such a bad state that people have to think twice before getting onto charminar.

[RP]

Agree with Anita. If not the government, at a minimum, people should think twice.