New Delhi: The 14th century Siri Fort wall
here is soon expected to become a major tourist spot with
excavation and conservation work being carried out on its
roughly 1.5-km-stretch at a cost of nearly Rs 25 crore.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is engaged in
excavating all buried portions of the wall in a phased manner
and the first phase of conservation work at Panchsheel Park
already completed.
This was stated in Parliament by Minister of State for
Planning and Parliamentary Affairs V Narayanasamy, who also
holds the ad hoc charge of the Ministry of Culture, in
response to a question.
"In the first phase, the excavation and conservation
of the Siri Fort Wall at Panchsheel Park at a cost of Rs 21.44
lakhs was taken up and has since been completed," he said.
He said the second phase of work on the wall between
Gargi College and August Kranti Marg, which has been taken up
at a cost of Rs 3.42 crore, is under progress.
Giving details of heritage sites that lie buried today
due to government`s development works, he said an ancient late
Harappan site in Gujarat`s Amreli district has been largely
submerged due to a dam built on Vadi river.
"The ASI has suggested to retrieve its artefacts as
much as possible, and de-notify the site," he said.
The ancient site at Bramhapuri in Kolhapur district of
Maharashtra, excavated by the ASI in 1944-45, has been
encroached upon by habitation settlement, he informed.
PTI
