Chhatar Manzil restoration project to resume, gondola will be housed in Darbar Hall

LUCKNOW The 42-ft-long and 11-ft-wide gondola (a traditional, flat-bottomed boat) unearthed during excavation at the 220-year-old Chhatar Manzil in 2019 would eventually be housed in the building’s Darbar Hall

LUCKNOW The 42-ft-long and 11-ft-wide gondola (a traditional, flat-bottomed boat) unearthed during excavation at the 220-year-old Chhatar Manzil in 2019 would eventually be housed in the building’s Darbar Hall. This will be part of the exercise for Chhatar Manzil’s restoration, which is expected to take off this month.

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The project will also include the excavation of the gondola that is still lying buried on Chhatar Manzil’s premises, said officials with the UP State Archaeology Department (UPSAD).

“The stalled Chhatar Manzil beautification work is set to start again. Funds for the project are likely to be released by March, after which the excavation and relocation exercise of gondola would start,” said AK Singh, director, state museum who holds additional charge of UPSAD director.

Singh said as per the proposed plan, the gondola would be housed in Darbar Hall of the Chhatar Manzil, which itself would be transformed into a museum.

“No place would be better than the Darbar Hall to house the gondola. I think it would be a major tourist attraction,” said Singh.

The UPSAD had also written a letter to UP Rajkiya Nirman Nigam (UPRNN) —the construction agency engaged in the ongoing work – to suggest an agency to ensure the safe excavation of the gondola, which could also be a royal boat.

UPSAD officials said the excavation agency for the gondola was yet to be finalised. Some officials said the UPRNN or the UPSAD could rope in the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) or the National Research Laboratory for Conservation of Cultural Property (NRLC) or UPSAD’s excavation wing to take out the gondola safely.

The gondola was unearthed on May 8, 2019, during excavation work at Chhatar Manzil when excavators and experts from UPRNN stumbled upon a wooden structure that was partially visible.

It was later confirmed that the wooden structure was nothing else but a colossal gondola. The faculty of architecture, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University (AKTU), is the consultant in the Chhatar Manzil restoration and conservation project.