HYDERABAD:  Puranapul, the first bridge to be constructed in Hyderabad, lies in a sorry state with garbage strewn under it where the Musi river once flowed in all its might. While a shadow of the same still flows under slowly, the bridge has suffered a lot through the years due to negligence of civic authorities. The bridge constructed in 1528 has a row of 22 arches, around 600-feet-long, and 54 m above the river bed, writes Syed Ali Asgar Bilgrami in his book Landmarks of the Deccan.

At the end of the bridge, there is a gateway which is called the Puranapul Darwaza — one of the two surviving gateways of the old walled city of Hyderabad. With the construction of Nayapul and several other bridges over the Musi river, the old bridge has lost its importance in the civic sense and has been left to its fate. A look at the bridge would show numerous cracks on its surface and wild vegetation sprouting from various parts. With the toxic waters of Musi running below, hawkers do their daily business on the bridge since the vehicular movement has stopped.

People dump waste indiscriminately and one can spot a few pigs in the shallow waters below. As of now, the State government has embarked on an extensive cleaning process of Musi. As part of it, an official said they would take up restoration and repairs of the bridge. It is important to note that Puranapul is listed as a structure under Regulation 13 of HMDA’s list of protected heritage monuments, which the State government had earlier claimed that the law was nullified. However, during the Errum Manzil judgement, the High Court had made it clear that the provisions of Regulation 13 are still in force, thus giving Puranapul and several other structures, the status of protected monuments.

In 2002, the bridge was repaired on the eve of World Tourism Day. For a few years, the government had planned to repair the bridge, but that plan is yet to see the light of the day. During the time of the Nizams, Nawab Sikandar Jah reconstructed the entirety of the bridge after the famous flood of 1820. The superstructure of the bridge was again repaired during the reign of Nawab Mahboob Ali Khan after the floods in 1908.