Golconda being spruced for Independence Day

HYDERABAD: The surrounds of the historic Golconda fort will have a revived look on August 15 when Telangana's first chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao unfurls the Tricolour on Independence Day from the Taramati Mosque.

With only four days left for the grand event, authorities are leaving no stone stone unturned in sprucing up the locales. All roads leading to the 800-year-old mosque are being repaired, widened and re-carpeted by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) at an estimated cost of Rs 7 crore.

Gardens, which once were known to have existed, are now being recreated adjacent to the gateways on the outer fortified walls. Lamp posts are being painted and fixed with bulbs. Garbage dumps are being cleared and parking areas are being regularised.

TRS leader and MP K Kesava Rao, who visited the monument, inspected the ongoing arrangements. He directed the revenue and police officials to erect a 30-feet flag post near the Taramati Mosque suitable to capture the background when the chief minister unfurls the Tricolour.

A temporary dais has been erected near the mosque for KCR to deliver his Independence Day address in front of an audience, likely to comprise at 5,000 VIPs and guests.

The TRS MP directed officials to ensure that the KCR faces the East when he unfurls the flag and also to arrange the CM's guard of honour ceremony at the garden outside the curtain wall of the fort near the entrance.

Special media points have been identified to capture the best images and visuals of the ceremony. Guests would also be seated at the gardens adjacent to the Aslah Khana near the clapping portico.

'All of a sudden, some order seems to have returned to the place. We have been neglected for decades. Hope this the beginning of a new era,' an elderly hawker Md Majid Khan.

A tourist and a Telanganite Rajender Goud, who was visiting the fort with his family on Sunday, was found wondering about the choice of venue for unfurling the flag.

'When I heard the chief minister will unfurl the flag from here, I thought he would do it from the top of the monument,' he said and felt that the camel's stable inside the fort is also a place which gives both the required backdrop and vantage point for the unfurling.

The roads from Langer Houz junction to Tolichowki corassroads via Banjari Darwaza, from Adityanagar culvert to Seven Tombs. Tolichowki crossroads to Seven Tombs and Shaikpet to Haridaspura are being repaired.

GHMC also plans to decorate the roads from Ramdevguda junction, Nanl Nagar crossroads, Shaikpet and other roads leading to the fort.