Railways Turns Heritage Site into Dump Yard: Reports

The country’s oldest Mughal monument Nila Gumbad has turned into a dumping yard of Railways, said reports.

Grieved with the Railways for its apathy to the 16th century monument, which is part of the original complex of Humayun’s tomb, Union Sports Minister wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to step in to conserve the heritage site.

“This material belongs to the railways. It has been lying here for the past year, year and a half,” Railways gangman Narayan Meena was quoted as saying by IBNlive.

Indian Railways has been using Nila Gumbad as a godown for more than two years.

Reports said that Gill, a heritage enthusiast, made repeated requests to the railways and when nothing positive turned out wrote to Singh, urging him to intervene.

“Nila Gumbad is a valuable monument, evidence of close link with Taimur’s Samarkand. The valuable monument is suffering from conflict between the Railways and the ASI, and the indifference and the lack of urgency, shown by both. As Culture Minister and Prime Minister I would request you to intervene and give necessary directions to resolve this conflict. Kindly give necessary directions, to properly preserve the Nila Gumbad,” Gill wrote in the letter.

However, the Railways is adamant.

“The Indian railways does not have any other place to stack its material,” was all that Northern Railways CPRO Ananth Prakash said.

Reports said that railways had promised to vacate the land five years ago for the ASI landscape and preserve an MOU.

Now it has not only scrapped but is suggesting that a skyway is built on the site to connect the Nila Gumbad to Humayun’s Tomb.

Reports also said that railways is constructing an operational building in the prohibited heritage zone just 50 meters away from Nila Gumbad.