BIDAR: Naya Kaman, one of the 11 gates of the Bidar fort and monument, collapsed on Friday night owing to heavy rain.

Newspaper vendors found the collapsed gate and alerted the police. They in turn contacted the city municipal council officials. However, they could not shift the rubble till the officials of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) permitted them to do so. It was removed later.

The gate was also one of the four entrances to the old fort city of Bidar.

Closed

The collapse ensured that the entrance to the old city remained closed for a long time in the morning. This led to a four-hour-long traffic jam.

Historian M.A.Hashmi explained that the structure was called Naya Kaman as it was relatively new. It was built by the Nizam of Hyderabad in the early 1900s, some 800 years after the Bidar fort was built. It was meant to be a transit route for camels, elephants and for tall vehicles to enter the old city.

A fortnight ago, government officials dismantled a dilapidated arch above the gate leading to Hamilpur village, after one of its stone slabs fell on a man.

Meanwhile, Government sources said that the district administration had warned the ASI about the dilapidated gate a three weeks ago.

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