Mysterious British-era tunnel found connecting Legislative Assembly to Red Fort

New Delhi, Sept 3: In a huge development, a mysterious tunnel-like structure was discovered at the Delhi Legislative Assembly on Thursday. The tunnel connects the legislative assembly to Red Fort and was used by the Britishers to avoid reprisal while moving freedom fighters.

 

The distance between Delhi Legislative Assembly and the Red Fort is about 5 kms. It should be noted that the assembly building was in 1912 during British rule and was designed by E. Montague Thomas to hold the ‘Imperial Legislative Council and later the Central Legislative Assembly till the new Parliament building was inaugurated.

 

Besides this, the Red Fort was build during Mughal era and was commissioned by Shah Jahan in 1638, the fifth Mughal emperor. "When I became an MLA in 1993, there was hearsay about a tunnel present here that goes till Red Fort and I tried to search for its history," Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel stated.

 

 

According to Goel, the authorities have been able to identify the mouth of the tunnel, but will not dig any further. They plan to refurbish it and make it open to public. "There was no clarity over it. Now we have got the mouth of the tunnel but we are not digging it further as all the paths of the tunnel have been destroyed due to metro projects and sewer installations.

 

"This place has a very rich history in the context of the freedom struggle. We intend to renovate it in a way that tourists and visitors can get a reflection of our history," he added. Goel further informed that the Delhi Legislative Assembly, which was used as Central Legislative Assembly after shifting of capital from Kolkata to Delhi in 1912, was turned into a court in 1926 and Britishers used this tunnel to bring freedom fighters to the court.

 

 

The assembly speaker added that in view of the history of the Delhi Legislative Assembly associated with the independence of the country, he intends to open the gallows room for the tourists by the next independence day and the work for the same has already started. "We all knew about the presence of a gallows room here but never opened it. Now it was the 75th year of independence and I decided to inspect that room. We intend to change that room into a shrine of freedom fighters as a tribute to them," he said.