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Breathing space for monuments

Staff Reporter

Encroachments removed from Walled City

NEW DELHI: The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is giving its monuments here in the Capital a chance to "breathe". Kicking off its demolition drive by removing encroachments from the City Wall near the Inter-State Bus Terminus this past Sunday in keeping with a Delhi High Court directive, ASI officials said these demolitions would be the first of many more.

"Some of these encroachments were over three decades old. We removed encroachments from the City Wall on Nicholson Road and ISBT. Residents had built over the City Wall and also within the cells of the walls," said a senior ASI official.

The ASI has also removed encroachments from the historic Lal Gumbad in Chiragh Dilli.

The other monuments that are likely to get some relief are Rajpur Cemetery, Lothian Road Cemetery -- the first Christian graveyard in the city -- as well as Sarai Shahji at Malviya Nagar.

"In a report submitted to the Delhi High Court, we had stated that 14 monuments were under encroachments. Some of these encroachments were very old and others were minor encroachments in buildings that were being used as mosques like Sunheri Masjid. We also cleared some encroachments around Arab-ki-Sarai walls last year," said an official.

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