Experts say Osmania General Hospital is fine

Hyderabad: The talk of demolishing Osmania General Hospital might have been the one push that Hyderabad needed to wake up and save the city’s remaining heritage monuments.

That was what brought people from different walks of life together at the two-day talk, Living History: The Heritage of Hyderabad, hosted by Hyderabad Trails at Lamakaan.

The first talk, ‘Architectural history that shaped Hyderabad’, was given by author and conservation architect, Madhu Vottry. She spoke about how the various rulers of the city and their culture had helped shape the architecture in buildings around us.

The second speaker, conservation architect G.S.V. Suryanarayana Murthy, brought out maps of various buildings that he had helped restore including a survey map of the Osmania General Hospital during his talk ‘Approach to architecture conservation with case studies from Hyderabad’.

“The supporting structure of OGH is built with stone masonry and is very strong. When the structure of a building is this strong, there is absolutely no threat to the building for many years to come. That’s what we had found in our study,” he said.

“We had carried out a survey about two-three years ago and apart from a few minor repairs, the building is strong. Yes, between then and now, the government has changed and due to that there might have a little miscommunication and that is why there might be this confusion about the building being weak,” he added.

So what can be done? While various organisations have been raising their voice against talks of demolition, the speakers felt that a people initiative was what could save the city from such further attempts.

“Take a look at other cities, everyone has a connect with their buildings...probably that is an issue here. There are not too many people who have a strong connect with the monuments around them…that is needed, when that is there, people will feel the pinch,” said Sajjad Shahid, co-convenor, Intach Hyderabad Chapter.

During the question and answer session, a participant asked, “If the building is in a dilapidated state, why is the caretaker not being brought to task? Shouldn’t a case be filed against him for neglecting such the building?” He added, “If the hospital is expanded, wouldn’t it only cause more traffic at that junction and isn’t that much more troublesome?”

Mr Shahid said, “If the building is razed, what will happen to the debris? There is going to be so much of debris that it will cause a lot of pollution...where will they transfer that?”

Day one of the two-day talk ended with participants sharing their memories of OGH. While a few spoke about their education in the building, others spoke about the times the hospital had helped their family.