Delhi: MCD considers protection for possible sarai at Modi Mill flyover

MCD is considering formal protection for old masonry, two damaged rooms and a large well beneath the Modi Mill flyover on Mathura Road. The remains may be part of Sarai Juliana, an 18th-century travellers’ inn.

Aqil Ahmed, member secretary of the MCD Heritage Cell, said the ruins could be linked to Dona Juliana Dias da Costa and may date to around 1720, during the reign of Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah Rangeela. The site lies along a corridor once used by travellers arriving in Delhi from Agra on the old imperial highway, where sarais and wells offered rest and water.

The surviving remains include two rooms in poor condition, traces of Lakhori bricks and older masonry alongside the well. Vegetation and Delhi’s expansion have obscured much of the complex.

MCD is considering the structure for its next heritage list. A heritage notification would require surveys to establish its value, followed by approvals under the Unified Building Bye-Laws, 2016, and the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act. MCD previously prepared heritage lists in 2010 and 2016; its third list has yet to be drawn up.