GUWAHATI: Puranigudam Minar, as the locals call it, stands tall in a dusty bylane of Nagaon. Situated inside the Puranigudam Masjid, built in 1824, the turret was about to be demolished to make way for a highway expansion project. The people of Purunigudam, cutting across religious lines, would not let that happen.
In 2015, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) proposed expansion of NH-37 into a four-lane highway.
Now, the Minar is being moved 70 feet away from the original site, engaging six labourers. “Initially, we estimated a Rs 5-lakh budget. But it has shot up to Rs 8 lakh. So, our firm is chipping in. The work is 60% done. In another 20 days, we will be able to finish it,” Chauhan further said.
For the locals, this comes as a relief after a long battle. “It has been four years since we took the initiative to preserve the site. The Minar is a symbol of harmony in Nagaon.
Through social media, a lot of people are now aware of it and help is coming in from all quarters,” said Chittaranjan Borah, a resident of Puranigudam, who was the first to alert the authorities about the need to preserve the site.
Source: Times of India
