New Osmania hospital to rise where a Qutb Shahi palace once stood

Design of the proposed Osmania General Hospital building.
| Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL

A new Osmania General Hospital is taking shape in the middle of the bustling neighbourhood of Goshamahal, Begumbazaar and Asif Nagar in Hyderabad. A hundred years earlier, the city saw a similar hospital taking shape on the banks of River Musi. Conceptualised between 1918 and 1921 by architect Vincent Jerome Esch, the building with legacy motifs like domes, chajjas and merlons. Tipping the hat to Nizam Osman Ali Khan who commissioned the building, it has the dastar, or the turban-like headgear on the inner arches. A high-ceilinged dome with stained glass pattern formed the entrance to the grand hospital that was built at a cost of ₹22.66 lakh. A yearly maintenance fund of ₹5 lakh ensured that it was one of the best medical facilities in the State.

The new building breaks free of the love for glass and chrome. “I found it nice; a welcome change from the classic style KCR (former chief minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao) brought in vogue. Except, the jaali pattern stuck on skin isn’t really Deccan. It will be a very functional building. But it remains a suspense till we read the drawings,” says architect Pingali Naga Praveen about the new building.  

Beyond its grandeur and legacy, Osmania General Hospital has also been the birthplace of prominent figures, including Telangana Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and former chief minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy.

Wires were connected to the main power lines to draw electricity for devices arranged at the venue in Goshamahal, Hyderabad, where foundation stone for new Osmania General Hospital building was laid by Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and his Cabinet colleagues in Hyderabad on Friday.

Wires were connected to the main power lines to draw electricity for devices arranged at the venue in Goshamahal, Hyderabad, where foundation stone for new Osmania General Hospital building was laid by Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and his Cabinet colleagues in Hyderabad on Friday.
| Photo Credit:
NAGARA GOPAL

During a visit to the hospital, architect Sibghat Khan was startled to find a stucco marking on the wall that read ‘Khatarnak Raasta’ (dangerous path). It may have referred to the constant rush of people, but OGH’s name has often been tied to unsavoury or grim events, like a report in The Hindu from November 24, 2000, stated: “A surcharged atmosphere prevailed around the Osmania Hospital mortuary with hundreds of civil liberties activists staging a demonstration in protest against the killing of T. Purushotham, joint secretary of the A.P. Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC), on Friday afternoon.”

Or this report five years later, in which Johnny, a worker at the morgue of OGH, was quoted as saying when the bodies of Delta Fast Passenger train near Valigonda were wheeled in on October 31, 2005: “I was terrified to see the bodies of victims of the Jubilee Hills bomb blast case and Shanti Fireworks fire accident. But, this train tragedy is the worst ever.”

The OGH became a site for mourning for all communities whenever there were bouts of communal blood-letting in Hyderabad, especially in the 1990s. 

The new site where the hospital would be built used to be a ‘houz’ till 1914. It carries the name of a Qutb Shahi palace that was the playground for the women in the zenana of the last Qutb Shahi ruler, Abul Hasan. During the nine-month siege of the Golconda Fort and Hyderabad, the imperial army of Aurangzeb was massed and camped out in the area. His son, Shah Alam, appropriated the palace till the conquest was complete. Called Gosha Mahal, it also had a baradari. The baradari of the palace is the only surviving structure and has been in use as a Masonic Lodge. It can be barely seen as it is surrounded by shops selling plywood and hardware. 

After the Mughal Conquest, it became a training ground for Goshamahal Troops, part of the Nizam’s Irregular Force. After Independence, the Gosha Mahal area became a part of the policing facility with staff quarters, training ground for mounted police and other paraphernalia. On October 19, 1956, Burgula Ramakrishna Rao, who was the chief minister of Hyderabad, inaugurated the police stadium on the site. This was just days before the formation of the United Andhra Pradesh on November 1, 1956.

With the stadium’s demolition, Hyderabad will lose a piece of its history. In its place, however, will rise a much-needed public health facility, something that is still out of reach for many Indians.