Walled City becomes ‘sustainable’

At last some good news related to the Walled City surfaced as the Sustainable Development Walled City Lahore (SDWCL) has been given full authority to look after all municipal matters and to conserve the heritage in the area. After the bill giving autonomous power to the SDWCL was passed last week, the organisation is now ready to take all municipal concerns of the area to assure better development, preservation and maintenance the city’s heritage. The basic objectives of the Walled City of Lahore Act 2011 are to identify, authenticate, plan, restore and maintain the ‘one of a kind’ heritage point found in the metropolis of Punjab.
Other than maintenance and conservation of the heritage of the Walled City, the act was brought forward to plan, develop and create an infrastructure by providing adequate access through streets, roads, safe pipelines for water and sewerage as well as related electricity and communicational networks. It also includes temporary take-over of private buildings by the authority for restoration of original Heritage and then return to owner/occupant. Adding to that the act intends to promote tourism and cultural activity in the Walled City.
Experts say the tempered Walled City of today might be a result of lack of coordination of numerous departments working in the same area and the fragmentation and overlapping of laws of different departments. The departments operating in the vicinity included CDGL, Auqaf, Archaeology, Tourism, Evacuee Property Trust Board, Revenue, WAPDA, WASA, PTCL and SNGPL. Amongst the many problems being faced by the Walled City the most eminent were lack of maintenance of monuments, illegal extensions, encroachments by shops operating under government support, lack of planning of electricity and telephone wiring, the building of new plazas in the area, demolition and depletion of heritage buildings.
The salient feature of the authority includes establishment and constitution of the Walled City of Lahore Authority, master conservation and re-development plan, declaration of heritage property zones of special value conservation of heritage, property building control, sanctioning of building plans representation of inhabitants and business community offences, penalties and cognizance restriction on trade & commerce temporary or permanent acquisition of property registration of owners and occupants of private buildings, regulation of transfer of property finance, taxation, accounts and audit, and last but certainly not the last is the establishment of the Heritage Conservation Board.
The Walled City of Lahore, also known as the “Old City” or “Anderoon Shehr”, is the section of Lahore that was fortified by a wall during the Mughal era. It covers an area of 256 ha with a population of 200,000. The city walls were destroyed shortly after the British annexed the Punjab in 1849 and were replaced with gardens, some of which exist today. The Circular Road links the old city to the urban network. Access to the Walled City is still gained through the 13 ancient gates, or their emplacements.
The convoluted and picturesque streets of the inner city remain almost intact, but the rapid demolition and frequently illegal rebuilding taking place throughout the city is causing the historic fabric to be eroded and replaced by inferior constructions. Historic buildings are no exception, and some have been encroached upon. The few old houses in the city are usually two or three stories tall, with brick façades, flat roofs, richly carved wooden balconies and overhanging windows.
The Walled City had 13 gates: Akbari, Bhatti, Delhi, Kashmiri, Lohari, Masti, Mochi, Mori, Roshnai, Shah Alam, Shairanwala, Taxali and Yakki. All of these gates survived until the 19th century.
In an effort to de-fortify the city, the British demolished almost all of the gates except Roshnai Gate. Some were rebuilt in simple structures, except for Delhi and Lohari gates. Shah Alam Gate burnt to ground during the riots of 1947 while Akbari Gate was demolished for repairs but never built again. Today, out of 13, only Bhatti, Delhi, Kashmiri, Lohari, Roshnai and Shairanwala gates survive, yet many are in urgent need of repairs and restoration.