Heritage enthusiasts deplore ramp works at Moula Ali hill

850-metre ramp being built lands behind historic shrine where a big parking lot is being readied

The rat-rat-rat of pneumatic drill breaks the calm of the day halfway up the Maula Ali hillock. The smooth rock is now pock-marked with holes. Blocks of granite are tossed to one side as workers insert chisels to crack the rock into pieces to build a ₹25-crore ramp that will transform the small spiritual shrine. A grey haze of granite dust hangs in the air. “We are restoring the naqqar khana (drum house), arches and other small structures on top of the Maula Ali hill. Once the ramp is completed, we will take up the work of the half-dome that will protect the shrine and will be visible from across the city,” says Syed Nazeer Hasan Abedi of Al Kausar Trust, which is restoring the heritage spiritual site. “Once the ramp is built, the view of the two chattris will be blocked. It will take away some of the aura of the place. I had seen the markings earlier but this is not what I had expected. They are building a two-lane ramp and a parking space for 50 cars near the tower,” says Sibghat Khan, an architecture student, who chanced upon the destruction while on a visit to the site and raised an alarm.