Acynosure of Nizam’s legacy will continue to draw hundreds of people in Vijayawada and will not be homecoming to Telangana after the state’s bifurcation.
As the officials have decided that `Deccan Queen’, an Albion bus, and a heritage asset of Nizam State Rail and Road Transport Department (NSR-RTD) kept at Pandit Nehru bus station in the city will remain the property of APSRTC in Seemandhra.
The NSR-RTD operated 27 Albion buses in 1932 all through the Nizam state as part of Nizam’s Guaranteed State Railway (NGSR).
At present, only two of these buses exist, which draws hundreds of people everyday. While one bus is kept at the APSRTC administrative headquarters in Hyderabad, the other one was brought to Vijayawada when a new bus station was opened two decades back.
While the heritage activists in Hyderabad demand that the APSRTC send the Deccan Queen back to Telangana, APSRTC officials have decided to keep it in Vijayawada.
“The Albion bus will remain in Vijayawada as Hyderabad has a similar asset of same period,” APSRTC Vijayawada zone executive director R Naga Raju told TOI.
R Naga Raju said the issue of shifting such heritage assets would not arise as it would be the responsibility of the state governments concerned to take care of such properties.
The Deccan Queen was imported from London. It had a seating capacity of just 19.
In 1932, the Nizam launched bus services, initially covering about 400 km. The other thing one has to think about it is whether the residuary state of AP will retain the magic letter “Z“in the registration number of RTC buses post bifurcation. The alphabet “Z“stands for Zehra, mother of the Nizam VII, Mir Osman Ali Khan.
“There is no point in demanding the transfer of such a heritage property to Hyderabad. Would Telangana transfer Seemandhra heritage properties located in Hyderabad to the new state of AP?” questioned T Ram Mohan Rao, heritage activist and INTACH Machilipatnam chapter convener.
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