Govt. Guest House Arch Gate conservation works resume

Iron grills to be installed to secure the heritage structure 

Mysore/Mysuru: The works on conserving the over a century-old Heritage Arch at the Northern Gate of Government Guest House in Nazarbad which was abruptly stopped due to COVID-19 lockdown has now resumed.

As the Arch comes in the way of road widening works (Abba Road from Five Lights Circle to Hyder Ali Road into a six-lane road), Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) Zone-7 officials, taking note of the damages that the motorists and the road works personnel may cause to the Arch, decided to install iron grills all around the Arch in order to secure it.

Officials from the Department of Archaeology, Museums and Heritage and members of the District Heritage Expert Committee inspected the spot and later gave the grill design to the MCC authorities, taking into consideration the risk factors if the Arch stands directly exposed to vehicular movement. 

Based on this design, the MCC officials are erecting grills of 2 metre height all around the Arch, upon a concrete base  of one-and-a-half feet thickness. The earth digging work for the construction of concrete base began in January. But some days later, the works came to an abrupt halt due to lockdown.

MCC Zone-7 Development Officer Mahesh told ‘Star of Mysore’ that the works on the construction of concrete bed has resumed and all the works, including erection of grills will be so executed that all the heritage characteristics of the Arch will be retained in totality as advised by experts and that no damage will be done to the Arch during the works.

With works in progress, the jurisdictional Devaraja Traffic Police Inspector Muniyappa and staff and MCC officials visited the spot this morning and conducted a review of traffic visibility and pedestrian safety on the stretch of the busy B.N. Road.

This is the heritage North Gate Arch, the entrance arch to the famed more than 150-year-old Government Guest House. With the grant from the State Finance Commission (SFC) the MCC has taken up the widening and development work of Abba Road from Five Lights Circle to Hyder Ali Road into a six-lane road. MCC has taken permission from the Government to use the land in the Government Guest House premises for development.