Koti Women’s College set to get a makeover

Hyderabad: The Koti Women’s College, which shot to fame globally after William Dalrymple’s book ‘White Mughals’, has finally got a fresh lease of life after being on the restoration list for almost two decades.

A project implementation committee meeting held on Thursday decided to speed up the restoration work at the college.

Some of the major decisions include monthly progress report, inventory and cataloguing of movable assets, mapping of building services, adaptive reuse policy, testing of building materials and restoration of miniature model and historic gardens (Rang Mahal).

The Project is a collaborative effort between Osmania University, Hyderabad (OU); Department of Archaeology & Museums, Government of Telangana (GoT) and World Monuments Fund, New York (WMF).

As part of the collaboration, a Conservation Management Plan has been prepared outlining the conservation measures, adaptive reuse of the historic property including regulated public access to historic spaces.

Fund raising for implementation of various conservation, adaptive reuse and management measures is in process.

B T Seetha, principal, Koti Women’s College, said, “Restoration works have begun at a cost of Rs 1.7 crore and an assurance of Rs 4.5 crore from the WMF.”

The WMF will release funds subject to the condition that the State government too allots funds.

The State Archaeology department released Rs 1 crore and the college authorities are hopeful that more funds would be allotted this year.

In phase one, emergency repairs to the Durbar Hall building, structural consolidation of western portion of Durbar Hall block, removal of modern accretions to restore the authentic façade of the western balcony,

reconstruction of Madras Terrace Roof and wooden roof and water proofing of the Durbar Hall building using traditional methods would be taken up. The total time period for completion of phase one works is 18 months.