The Tughlaqabad Fort, the third city of Delhi, built by Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq in the 1320s, now stands encroached upon with a large part taken over by unauthorised colonies.

While the Archaeological Survey of India has already begun major restoration work on the outer fortifications, the agency is undecided over recreating the interiors of the fort.

“Inside the second fort, nearly 116 bigha of land is lal dora and 2,667 bigha is unauthorised colonies. Removing this encroachment will be a difficult and time consuming process, so we have begun work on the outer fortifications,” an ASI official working on the project told Newsline. “The city stood on DDA land; it was transferred to the ASI in 1995. The encroachment has been there since then,” he said. But a court case is on regarding the encroachment after demolitions were carried out in 2001. The Tughlaqabad Village is situated right within the outer fortifications and has posed a problem for the ASI.

An amount of Rs 2.25 crore has been sanctioned for the project. But officials working on the project consider this inadequate, as the estimate did not take into account several expenditures like the need to clear jungles in large portions of the fort.

A large part of the main fort is in fairly good condition but the outer fortifications that lead towards Badarpur are decaying. The ASI will restore nine bastions and the adjoining wall over the next year. “Lime, brick powder and Badarpur sand is being used to strengthen the outer walls and to restore the bastions. We are also using ashlar stone on the exterior,” the official said.

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