LAHORE, July 22: The Punjab government has constituted a six-member committee to analyze the soil of the Shalamar Gardens and the Lahore Fort before allowing the Parks and Horticulture Authority to carry out restoration work. The PHA has been awarded two contracts worth Rs40 million for the restoration and upkeep of the lawns of the Shalamar Gardens and the Lahore Fort despite opposition by the provincial archaeology department and experts.

Officials told Dawn on Friday that the committee would launch an investigation to find out the traces of the Mughal-era soil and seed. It would submit its recommendations to the government by Sept 15, they added.

They said the PHA would now begin restoration and maintenance of the lawns of the two historic sites measuring 38 and 25 acres, respectively, in October under the committee’s guidelines. These projects would cost Rs23.1 million and Rs17.1 million.

The committee is headed by Punjab Culture Secretary Taimur Azmat while University of Engineering and Technology architecture department’s Prof Mahmood Husain and its former professor Dr Abdul Rehman, NCA’s Sajjad Kausar and two experts of the Nespak are its members.

The officials said the committee had been constituted after several archaeologists questioned the PHA expertise on the restoration of the lawns of the Mughal-era monuments.

The two monuments are on the Unesco’s World Heritage List and were given under the administrative control of the Punjab in July last year.