Makkah Masjid repairing work resumed after 1 year gap

Hyderabad: Repairing and renovation work of Hyderabad’s historical mosque Makkah Masjid resumed after a gap of one year. However, there is no likelihood that this work will be completed by the onset of the holy month of Ramzan. 

The repairing and renovation work of the mosque is pending for the last two years due to the government’s apathy and the incompetence of the concerned authorities.

The contractors who were allotted the repairing work had left the work prior to the lockdown.  The Archeological Survey of India (ASI) had assigned the work to a new contractor who had earlier undertaken the renovation of the graveyard, Madrasa and the main gate.

The new contractor had commenced work on January 8 starting from the internal part of the mosque and taken three domes under his charge.  Due to the fixation of the Scaffoldings the internal space of the mosque for the devotees had further shrunk. The repairing work of 6 domes out of 16 has been completed.  The work for the remaining ten domes may take at least one more year. The old small wooden windows were removed and shall be re-fixed after its cleaning and repairing.  There is no proper care of those unique and rare windows as they were left in the open initially and later on shifted in the Madrasa building.   In case of any damage to these windows, it is not possible to have their replacements.

Apart from the internal part of the mosque, the ablution pool repair work also started.  The main issue in his regard is the water drain line as in the absence of such an outlet the water is seeping into the foundations of the building which may pose danger to the mosque structure.  The ASI officials have visited the mosque for assessment and they have reported that the graveyard area of the mosque is slowly sinking in the ground due to the water seepage.  If the authorities do not take prompt action to stop water seepage, not only the graveyard area but the whole building structure would be in danger.

During the summer last year, GHMC had arranged shed in the courtyard but due to non-payment, the contractor dismantled the shed from the courtyard.  The large gathering of devotees is forced to offer prayers under the hot blazing sun.

There is no storeroom for safekeeping of the holy books and other accessories.  A request was made in a detailed reported submitted to the government to hand over the unused part of the library building.  But the authorities have not taken any action in this regard.

Meanwhile, the prayer-mats that were arranged by the then Minister for Minority Affairs Mohammed Ali Shabbir in 2008 have become non-usable.  The Government is not showing any interest to provide new prayer mats. The salaries of the mosque employees were also not increased.