OU Arts College restoration works to be taken up; Rs. 3 crore allotted

Hyderabad: Incharge vice-chancellor of Osmania University and secretary for Telangana’s urban development ministry, Arvind Kumar, on Tuesday allotted Rs.3 crore to the Hyderabad Municipal Development Authority (HMDA) to take up repair works at the iconic Arts College building of the university.

Decades of neglect plagued the roof and walls with water leaks. As a result, the furniture and electrified fittings of the arts college building were damaged, leading to frequent accidents. 

Earlier, OU registrar Professor Ch. Gopal Reddy, Arts College principal Professor D. Ravinder, along with Kumar inspected the condition of the building and immediately responded to the neglected concerns. Set up by an order of seventh Nizam of Hyderabad, Osman Ali Khan, in 1917, the university initially functioned in temporary structures buildings.

Construction of the Arts College began in the 1930s, and the building was inaugurated in 1939. Belgian architect Ernest Jasper designed it in a blend of Indo-Saracenic design, with some characteristics of Cairo’s Mamluk style of architecture. Hyderabad’s engineer Ali Nawaz Jung and architect Zainuddin Khan Yar Jung executed Jasper’s idea.

Spread over in five acres of area, the construction cost over Rs. 30 lakh then. Over 600 sculptors from Kanjivaram, Coimbatore, Salem, Thanjavur, Turkapalem and Tirunelveli took part in the construction of the arts college. Construction materials such as granite polished granite, cement, arsenic, steel, limestone, sand, and pink granite were used.