Mir Iqbal
Srinagar, June 13: One year after the Dastgeer Sahib shrine at Khanyar in Srinagar was completely gutted in a blaze, the State Government at that time has promised to give priority to restore the shrine to its architectural glory with a blend of traditional and modern Islamic architecture within the stipulated period of two years.
Sajada Nasheen of the shrine, Syed Khalid Geelani says that the work on the re-construction of the shrine is going at slow pace. “The Shrine was gutted in June last year and the State Government had promised to construct it on fast track basis in two years. However, its completion on time seems to be doubtful”, he said.
“The way work is going on in the shrine in a slow pace, then it will take many years to complete it,” Geelani said. He said that more labourers and other construction workers should have been engaged if the shrine was to be constructed on fast track basis.
“The basic structure was to be completed in 6 months and it is still under construction. The construction agency blamed winter and rains for the delay. Now, we want that there should be no delay in interior work. I hope for interior work on the shrine, Government will ask the construction agency to engage more men,” Geelani said.
The Jammu and Kashmir Project Construction Corporation (JKPCC) officials said that the work is going on with good pace and they have completed 90 per cent of structure within these months and hoped to complete rooftop of the shrine within a week.
“We have almost completed 90 per cent of the work on the shrine, and within one week we will complete its rooftop; then for interior work, some other agency is working,” a top official of the JKPCC said.
JKPCC officials also said that within short period of time, they have completed almost whole shrine with double brick work. “We have completed the outer structure with the width of three-feet and at the same time we took care of ornamental designs of windows and doors,” the official said.
Saleem Beg, convener Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) Jammu and Kashmir Chapter, an organization which works for heritage conservation, said: “The interior work on the shrine of Gaus-ul-Azam Dastgeer Sahib (RA) will be started immediately, once the out-structuring of the building is finished.”
Beg said interior work of the shrine is the blend of traditional and modern Islamic architecture, and for that they have already started work. “We have started work on the material, now we have to adjust that inside shrine so that the shrine will look replicate of the old shrine. The work will take six months,” said Beg.
But Sajada Nasheen said that outer structure is only 30 per cent work of the shrine and rest 70 per cent is interior work and no interior has been done so far.
It is pertinent to mention, initially, the Wakf board which looks after the shrines of State took the responsibility of its construction and later it was handed over to the JKPCC.
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