SURAT, June 21: Hundreds of curious residents of the Katargam area of the city thronged the Katargam lake, where Surat Municipal Corporation workers digging the area have unearthed well-cut stones, bricks and wooden logs. At least 40 logs of wood, hundreds of bricks and a number of stones cut into rectangular shapes had been found some 35 feet below ground level till Saturday evening.Anticipating that a house or a temple, hundreds of years old, might have existed at the spot, officials began digging further in the afternoon, only to unearth more blocks of stone and wood and bricks. Finally, they gave up excavations, filled up the crater with mud and resumed regular operations from the evening.
SMC officials of the Katargam Zone, when contacted, said that since the logs and bricks were slightly damp, a stepwell could have existed at the spot, but denied that it could have been of any historical or archaeological importance. Neither had the Archaeological Society of India evinced any interest in the discovery, not had the SMC turned it over to the ASI, they added.
Incidentally, work on the development of the artificial Katargam lake has been dogged by delays. The last thing the SMC would want now is have the ASI declaring the spot to be of archaeological or historical importance.
SMC officials, while claiming that the excavated material could have belonged to a house as well, could not say how old the logs and wood were. However, Katargam Zone in charge J K Shah said the material had been stored in the zonal godowns.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
