Portion of Hyderabad's Mahboob Mansion collapses due to rains

A part of the nearly 120-year-old Mahboob Mansion, a heritage structure in Hyderabad's Malakpet area, collapsed on Wednesday. Video recorded by bystanders shows a portion of the roof collapsing. The city has been facing heavy rains over the last week and the former palace was in a state of neglect for decades. No one was injured in the incident. A video of the incident shows part of the first floor of the two-storied dilapidated structure crumbling down. Mahboob Mansion was once a palace named after the sixth Nizam, Mir Mahboob Ali Khan. The ruler of the then Hyderabad state used to live occasionally in this palace, built in a classical European and Mughal style.

Originally built by Hassan Bin Abdullah Nawaz Jung, the bungalow was purchased by Mahaboob Ali Khan who expanded it into a beautiful palace from where the race course was easily visible. Whatever was left of the majestic palace fell to neglect over the last few decades, and suffered encroachments. 

 

 

 

 

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Heritage activists say that Wednesday's incident is yet another indication of how the city's heritage is in total ruins. The mansion is now surrounded by residential colonies built as part of a housing board scheme. The structure is listed as a heritage monument with the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA), but the archaeology department has not declared it as a protected monument. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), under whose limits the structure now stands, has no dedicated funds for heritage conservation, according to reports. 

During the late 1970s, the area around the palace was converted into a wholesale grain and vegetable market by the then government. Later plans were mooted to develop the palace as a polytechnic college, but the plans remained on paper.