Save Victoria Zenana Hospital: Hyderabad activists to file PIL in HC

Hyderabad: Heritage advocates are preparing to file a public interest lawsuit (PIL) in the Telangana High Court to protect the former Victoria Zenana Hospital building, the first upscale women’s hospital in the area, where a multi-level parking structure has been proposed for the HC.

The 118-year-old structure should not be razed, campaigners requested while speaking to the media at Lamakaan. After the HC gave its approval for the destruction of the building, the case attorney in the High Court, Muralidhar Rao, stated there were only two methods to revive the litigation.

“One of the ways is to invoke Telangana Heritage (Protection, Preservation, Conservation, and Maintenance) Act, 2017, as the structure was denotified from the protected heritage list in 2010. Secondly, there is a need to build public pressure to protect the premises,” Mr. Rao said.

The land may be left alone, according to activists, and the remaining area can be used to construct an underground parking facility.

Background

Mahboob Ali Pasha, the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad (1869–1911), constructed the Victoria Zenana building, one of the city’s heritage buildings. It is one of the symbols of Hyderabad’s constructed history before the city was modernised and rebuilt following the Musi River flood in 1908 by the seventh and last Nizam, Osman Ali Khan (1911–1948). Ironically, the Telangana High Court is one of the contemporary structures built as a result of modernisation under the previous Nizam.

A portion of the building was pulled down earlier to make way for a parking lot for the High Court. The remaining structure will now face the axe for the construction of law chambers. The hospital was shifted to Petlaburz after the premises were handed over to the HC for expansion.