AN ILL WIND OVER A CITY'S HERITAGE

ONE YEAR SHY OF A CENTURY, THE HERITAGE STRUCTURE - AN EXEMPLAR OF INDO-SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE - WAS KEPT BEREFT OF FUNDS FOR UPKEEP

- Amarnath K. Menon

If the courts do not rescue it from a perilous fate, Hyderabad could well bid adieu to what has been an integral part of the city’s cultural and architectural heritage—the century-old original building of Osmania General Hospital (OGH). A gift by its last Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, the plan to build the hospital was conceived after the deadly bubonic plague of 1911, even though it was completed and became operational only by 1925. Designed by the British architect Vincent J. Esch, a pioneer of the Indo-Saracenic style of architecture, the hospital was part of the city’s 20th-century skyline, which also included the High Court and City College. Now, the Qutb Shahi-style domed building, spread over three acres along the Musi river, faces demolition, to make way for a larger facility.