Revisit history: Chattar Manzil & 4 more to be converted into heritage hotels in Lucknow

Lucknow is a living history book, with each page and chapter full of glorious stories of the erstwhile Nawabi culture. And as an aim to further encourage tourism in Lucknow, five palatial building belonging to the Nawabi-era including Chattar Manzil, Roshan-ud-Daula Kothi, Kothi Gulistan-e-Iram, Kothi Darshan Vilas, and Kothi Farhat Baksh, will soon be converted into heritage hotels in Lucknow. All of these structures were built between 1722 to 1856.

This moves comes as an inspiration from Rajasthan which has converted more than 200 heritage buildings into hotels.

While Rajasthan only allows private historical buildings to be converted into hotels, Uttar Pradesh government plans to convert government-owned historical structures into hotels under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, reports stated. 

Further, state ASI will keep a tab on the private parties involved and ensure that the renovation and repurposing of the building do not affect the heritage structure.

According to an official of the tourism department, these structures currently fall under the protected (notified) category, however in the next five days they will be brought under the unprotected (de-notified) category to turn them into operational hotels.

The transformation for the commercial use of the heritage structures has emerged as the best way to save these monuments from getting dilapidated. And, further, reliving tales of kings and queens, valiant warriors, a stay at one of these heritage hotels in Lucknow is going to be one hell of a dream.