CLEARED SKHERAurangabad: The lack of urgent steps to preserve and maintain the city’s historical gates claimed a casualty on Sunday.An entire portion of the historic Mehmood Gate’s arch came down on Sunday. This is the second damage to the heritage structure in the past couple of months. In June, one of its large wooden doors had fallen down.On Monday morning, movement of vehicles was blocked from the gate as a precautionary measure. Locals said a large truck, which passed through the gate, had inflicted irreparable damage to the structure. Movement of heavy vehicles is banned from the gate.A few residents blamed constant seepage of rainwater through the already dilapidated structure for the damage on Sunday night. The exact cause for the arch collapse could not be ascertained.Jayant Deshpande, chief of heritage conservation committee of Aurangabad Municipal Corporation, said he was in Mumbai at the moment. “I will ask other officials of the heritage panel to take stock of the situation and decide the future course of action,” he said.History expert Dulrai Qureshi said measures for restoration of Mehmood Gate and other dilapidated heritage structures should be expedited. “Efforts were taken by the local civic body for restoration of Mehmood Gate when its door had fallen down. Architects were invited and estimate of the cost to maintain the structure were taken. However, things did not progress further. Swift measures must be taken to keep the local heritage intact,” she said.Aurangabad has been historically referred to as the city of 52 gates, with each structure having its own history and links with individuals.The local civic body in May 2017 decided to restore and conserve five historic gates — Jafar Gate, Barapulla Gate, Naubat Darwaza, Kala Gate and Paithan Gate. A financial outlay of over Rs 47 lakh was made. However, no progress could take place as no firm came forward for taking up the responsibility.Incidentally, history experts had then stressed the need to include Mehmood Gate and Hatthi Gate in the list of structures to be restored, but their demand was not heeded to.

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