The project of restoring Mubarak Mandi royal complex as part of Dogra heritage is going on at snail’s pace. Mubarak Mandi Heritage Society, the organization looking after the restoration work of the complex is soar at the very slow speed at which the proposed restoration is going on at the hands of Archaeological Survey of India. It thinks that with this speed it will take half a century to complete the task and by that time more damage will happen because of weathering effect. The kind of work that is to be done is delicate and time consuming and only the ASI has the specialization. That is why renovation of the heritage complex was entrusted to it in 2007. But the major constraint, as we are told, is of release of adequate funds. According to ASI sources the restoration of the entire complex would entail an expenditure of Rs 300 crore which will not be forthcoming. Therefore the project was divided into segments and the one segment that was undertaken by the ASI in 2007 has so far completed 80 per cent of the work. Two things need to be done forthwith if this heritage complex is to be kept intact for posterity. One is that installments of allocated funds should be released at their proper time and second is that the ASI should double the manpower deployed for restoration work. We hope concerned authorities will take these suggestions into consideration.
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