LAHORE: The restoration and beautification of Kamran Baradari will cost Rs400 million and is intended to preserve the site’s historical character while turning it into a modern recreational destination for Lahore’s residents, Managing Director Horticulture Agency Lahore Ahmed Usman Javed said during a visit to the monument.
The MD reviewed progress on the ongoing project in detail, according to an official statement. Director Engineering Ms Samavia and Director Horticulture Aamir Farooq briefed him on the status of development work at the site.
The scheme will include a riverfront restaurant allowing visitors to take in views of the River Ravi, along with modern landscaping, lush green lawns, spacious walkways and jogging tracks, the MD said.
Quality benches, adequate lighting and modern washroom facilities will also be provided for the convenience of visitors, he said, so that families can spend time at the site in a peaceful and pleasant environment.
The objective of the project, Ahmed Usman Javed said, was to preserve the historical heritage while providing citizens with a beautiful, world-class recreational destination.
Kamran Baradari carries unusual weight in Lahore’s built history. The garden pavilion is associated with Mirza Kamran, a brother of the Mughal emperor Humayun, and is commonly described as the earliest surviving Mughal-era structure in the city, predating the imperial building programme that produced the Lahore Fort’s later additions, the Shalimar Gardens and Badshahi Mosque.
The monument’s survival has been precarious. Shifts in the course of the River Ravi left the baradari on an island, and the structure has required repeated intervention over the past century as flooding, erosion and encroachment took their toll. Access for most visitors is by boat, which has historically limited footfall and, with it, the case for sustained investment.
That context explains the shape of the current scheme: the amenities being added — restaurant, lighting, walkways, washrooms — are aimed at converting a heritage site with restricted access into a destination that can attract regular family visitors and generate the activity needed to justify its upkeep.
The MD directed the officers concerned to ensure the highest standards of quality, durability and aesthetic appeal in the restoration and construction work, and to complete the project within the stipulated timeline.
Heritage restoration in Lahore has drawn scrutiny in the past where modern additions were seen as intruding on the original fabric of protected sites, making the balance between conservation and commercial amenity the central technical question for a project of this kind.
For a project of this size, the durability question is as much about maintenance as construction. A riverfront restaurant, landscaped lawns, lighting and washroom blocks all carry recurring operating costs, and heritage sites on the Ravi have historically struggled to sustain that upkeep once the initial development phase ends.
The amenity mix suggests the agency is planning for a footfall-driven model, in which visitor numbers support the running of the facilities. Whether the site can attract that volume will depend heavily on how access to the island is organised once the work is complete.
The Kamran Baradari work runs alongside other Horticulture Agency Lahore activity in the city, including the plantation campaign launched under Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s Green Lahore vision, which is being expanded across the city.
Taken together, the two strands point to a broader remit for the agency than routine municipal horticulture: heritage-linked recreational development on one side, and corridor-scale plantation on the other, both presented by the provincial government as part of the same effort to make Lahore greener and more liveable.
Project cost and scope details in this report are as issued by the Horticulture Agency Lahore. The Lahore Times has sought the completion timeline and the conservation approvals obtained for the site.
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