Hyderabad: Sir Nizamat Jung library reopening put off again

• As most of the books in the library are from 1800s in a printed format, these books are over 200 years old

• The library also has manuscripts in Arabic language and, a copy of Quran, which is almost 1000 years old

• For conservation and restoration, the rare older books will be exposed to chemical process which is a time-consuming process

• As there are around 3,000 books left to repair it may take more than 4-5 months to reopen the library

Hyderabad: It has been almost a year since the historic Sir Nizamat Jung Memorial Library was supposed to be officially reopened following the renovation, but the delay in refitting and restoration of thousands of books put the matter on a backburner.

The library, which had remained closed for around 20 years, was supposed to be opened in April 2019, but has not yet seen the light. As it was facing neglect, the Telangana Minorities Residential Educational Institutions Society (TMREIS) came forward to renovate the library located at Nizamat Jung Mosque in Kacheguda, which was earlier under Telangana State Wakf Board.

According to library officials, an amount of Rs 15 lakh was spent on renovation. It has 8,000 to 10,000 rare books and manuscripts, most of which are of 150 to 175 years old and older than that. "As part of renovation and repair books are also undergoing the process. The cataloguing of the books has been completed, but around 3,000 are yet to undergo refitting. The renovation of building, furniture and other works have been completed, now only the books process is pending," said, the officials.

"As most of the books in the library are from 1800s in a printed format, these books are over 200 years old. The library also has manuscripts in Arabic language and, a copy of Quran, which is almost 1000 years old. For conservation and restoration, the rare older books will be exposed to chemical process which is a time-consuming process. As there are around 3,000 books left to repair it may take more than 4-5 months to reopen the library," said library In-charge Mohammed Azam.

While welcoming the gesture of TMREIS for facelift of the library, he felt it was a necessary, else these rare books would have faced decay. The collection has around 10,000 books, amongst which 80 per cent are in English, while remaining are in Urdu, Arabic, Persian and other languages. The library houses the books on history, science, literature, medicine, engineering etc. "We are trying our best to repair the books and open library for public as early as possible", added Azam.

It may be mentioned here that, Sir Nizamat Jung Memorial Library corner stone was laid by the former President of India, Dr Zakir Hussain in 1967 and the building was constructed by the contribution from Nizams charitable trust and was opened by Prince Azmat Jah in the year 1972.