Heritage lovers fume at civic body for Kurupam arch demolition

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Nov 24, 2013: Heritage lovers in the city are up in arms over the demolition of a heritage structure by the civic authorities. GVMC staff have demolished historic market gateway, famously called Kurupam arch- gateway in the One Town. The market was donated by Raja Vyricherla Veerabhadra Raju of Kurupam to the then Vizagapatam Municipality on September 1, 1914, to commemorate the coronation of King Edward VII.

It was also marked as one of the 50 odd heritage sites in the district and is crying for the attention of authorities for restoration, as it is already partially damaged. It was only recently that a delegation of The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) visited GVMC office requesting the officials to take measures to restore the neglected heritage structure.

A  GVMC team led by its additional commissioner M Janaki visited the site and assured INTACH members that they would take up the restoration work after consulting the experts of Andhra University’s architecture department as suggested by the INTACH fraternity.

“We thought she (Janaki) was so sincere and take up the restoration work. But we are now shocked to see that the entire gateway-arch was demolished instead of restoring or reconstructing it. It’s very unfortunate that such an old, important heritage structure was simply razed. They don’t have any concern towards the heritage structures,” INTACH Vizag chapter convenor, MV Prasad told this correspondent.

 GVMC sources said that since the market arch was in a dilapidated condition they wanted to raze it totally and build shopping facility for the local vendors.  Prasad added that the conservative architects at Andhra University were ready to help restore the heritage site.

“We will be very soon holding a meeting with all the members of INTACH and going to raise the issue in an appropriate manner. We fear they don’t understand the difference between an old building and a heritage structure and are just razing everything stating they are dangerous as they collapse,” added Prasad.