Hyderabad is a total paradise for lovers of history. Ours is one of the few cities with a rich culture of heritage buildings that remain operational even to this day. The 116 year old Ramgopalpet police station is today in a totally run-down condition and desperately in need of repairs. The GHMC has even notified the police department to vacate the building completely as it isn't occupied most of the time anyway. However, it feels really sad to see another one of Hyderabad's beautiful old buildings go to ruin or worse, razed and built over.
Let me catch you up on the history of this wonderful building. Among the oldest buildings in the city, Ramgopalpet police station was declared as a heritage site back in 1998. The Police station also houses a clock tower. The clock that is in this tower was gifted by Diwan Bahadur Ramgopal Seth, after whom the area was named. Ramgopal Seth was a financial trader originally hailing from Rajasthan, who rose to prominence as a businessman exchanging the Hyderabad Sikka and British currencies apart from running several simple businesses. He launched the now defunct DBR mills. You can see his statue near Paradise hotel.
As the GHMC looks to evacuate this once-glorious building, lovers of the city's rich heritage hope that this doesn't happen. However, is it viable for the GHMC to even consider a restoration? The answer might lie not very far from this building. The Malani brothers, who are the descendants of Seth Ramgopal have made their offices in one of their buildings not far from the police building. This particular building too is pretty old, built almost the same time as the police building. The septuagenarian brothers renovated this heritage beauty with an expenditure of just Rs 25 Lakhs earlier this year. A small portion of the house still lies in ruins, but there are plans in place to renovate that as well.
The renovation was completed in the early part of this year. The lime stone was sourced all the way from Tamil Nadu. Add to this, the wooden finishing that they added, we can safely assume that they didn't skimp out. Maybe the GHMC should just a take a stroll down the street from the Ramgopal Police station and check out this building. Hopefully, they might then let go of any demolition ideas and consider renovating this important piece of Hyderabad's heritage.
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