BAHAWALPUR, Oct 18: Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi has allocated Rs165 million for the restoration of the historical Derawar Fort in Cholistan, about 70 kilometres from here.

The chief minister has directed the archaeology department to start the renovation work immediately, an official told Dawn.

Despite being in a state of disrepair for many years, the fort continues to attract tourists from home and abroad.

The Derawar Fort was built near the ancient bed of Hakra river around AD 834 by a Bhati Raja Dera Sudh, also known as Dev Rawal, who was the nephew of Raja Jajja, a ruler of Ahmedpur East. The fort was originally named after Dev Rawal, but later on it was named as Derawar.

It had 40 bastions of which twenty were made of mud. It has three gates.

According to noted researcher Rafique Moghul, it is a square fort measuring 672 feet across with a gate on its southern side approached by a winding ramp. There is a well inside and a large tank outside the fort, but at a distance from the fort area. Most of the bastions, varying in size and showing geometric designs, are now in a dilapidated condition.

The surface level inside the fort is more than sixty feet higher than the plain level outside the fort. A number of buildings intended to house the Nawab’s army, retiring quarters of the Royal family and the jail are in a state of disrepair.

The ‘zanankhana’ has many portions. In one of the portions, a room has a magnificent but oldest cot of the late Nawab. It had carved doors, hidden tunnels with tracks to convey trolleys to cart valuables out of the basement.

The fresco work on the ceilings is still visible to the tourists. The southern bastions have a residential building for the Nawabs where a flag used to flutter high above its roof, but now it has disappeared.

There is a mosque built of impressive structure and marble outside the fort. According to historians, the marble mosque was built by Nawab Bahawal Khan-III in 1825. A royal graveyard is also located there. — Correspondent