Larkana-Moenjo Daro road realignment: Sindh government stops work undertaken by NHA

The Sindh government intervened to stop the work undertook by National Highway Authority (NHA) to use some area of Moen-jo-Daro's ancient site for proposed realignment of Larkana -Moenjo Daro Road, Sindh Cultural and Tourism Minister Sussui Palijo told the Sindh Assembly on Friday.
NHA wanted to encroach over some part of the ancient site to realign the road because of the expansion of runway of Moenjo Daro Airport, she said during questions and answers session on Friday. She said her department's intervention and subsequent high level meetings with NHA officials, Civil Aviation Authority, Archaeology Department, and District Administration of Larkana, the issue was solved.
To a question, she said with the 18th Constitutional Amendment, the responsibility of maintenance and conservation of the ancient site would transfer to the province's Culture and Tourism Department. At present the Federal Archaeology Department is looking after the site, the minister said. She said the Shikarpur city museum will be completed in 24 months, but refused to give the exact date for the project's opening at present. She said work had been awarded for the scheme with administrative approval on March 15, last year.
Sussui enumerated a number of other museums to be constructed by the Sindh government in the province, which included: construction of Mukhi House, Old Free Masons Lodge and Old Mitharam Hostel, in Hyderabad and Karachi respectively.
She added the Sindh government was also establishing a Museum of Recent Past in Hyderabad, Sindh Wildlife Museum in Karachi and a digital library in Jamshoro besides an e-library.
Further, she said, there were a number of unapproved schemes for making of museums in the province, which included: establishment of a Police Museum in Karachi and Site Museum in Miani, Hyderabad, besides, uplift of Site Museum in Amri. Construction of Site Museum and up-gradation and promotion of visitors' facilities in Makli is also an unapproved agenda of her department, she said. Replying to a query, Sussui said citing the curator of Archaeology Department, a police official Yaqoob Shah and a family Raju Kokri had grabbed the ancient Nehal Darya Temple in Thatta. However, her department has not yet received authentic information regarding the stealing of antiquities from the temple, the minister added.
She said the Culture and Tourism Department had asked the District Administration of Thatta to take a legal action against the grabbers and vacate the temple from them. She also pointed out that KBCA had declared about 157 structures in the city as "dangerous building," of which 22 were included in the declared protected heritage list. The minister added the issue of 22 dangerous buildings would be placed before the advisory committee for Sindh heritage.