Restored, Chali Khuh yet to open to public

Charanjit Singh Teja

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 17

Chali Khuh (forty wells), sunk in the east of the city in 1904 and later converted to tube wells for direct supply to the distribution system for tap water supply, initiated by the British government, had been restored under the National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY). The government has spent Rs 5 crore on the project with an objective to attract tourists.

During a visit to the place, it has been learnt that the project is still incomplete and the work to restore the buildings on its premises was on.

The Municipal Corporation had proposed to develop one of the main buildings as an interpretation centre in 2019.

Sanjay Kanwar, Executive Engineer, MC, said: “The project is almost completed. Glasses are being installed. It would be completed within a month. As per the MC House decision, the building would be developed as an interpretation centre.” During the regime of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, there were 300 wells in the city. The Britishers sunk a large number of wells during their tenure. In the beginning, these were only source of drinking water as they could conveniently be sunk due to high-level of subsoil water.

Historian Anand Gauba in her book ‘Amritsar: A study in urban History’ mentioned that the Amritsar Municipality got an advance loan from the Central Government in 1902 for the waterworks in the city. It was first time, when the city residents got tap water supply. The Chali Khuh project got functional in 1904 but the pressure of water was less and supply was scanty that it could not satisfy the need of half of the people. A lot of efforts were made to improve the supply. In 1918-19, some tube wells also added to improve the capacity.

The Central Government restored several British-era monuments under the HRIDAY project two years ago but the government doesn’t seem to have any policy to keep open these monuments for tourists. After spending crores of rupees on the renovation of the monuments, a majority of them are yet to be opened for people. The MC renovated buildings, including Ram Bagh Deori, Chali Khoo, Old Deputy Commissioner’s Office, UBDC, Goal Bagh and Ram Bagh Gate, Panorama and old gates of the walled city. The work on most of these sites has been completed.