Amid Sultan Palace row, tourism minister says such heritage structures will be beautified

Amid controversy linked to the planned five-star hotel project on the premises of the 104-year-old Sultan Palace in Patna, Bihar, Tourism Minister Kedar Prasad Gupta said wherever there are “such heritage structures” in the state, they will be beautified.

He made these remarks on Friday, May 8, 2026, while interacting with media persons at his office in Patna, shortly after taking charge as the state’s new Tourism Minister following the expansion of the Bihar Cabinet led by Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary.

Mr Gupta was asked about the fate of the historic Sultan’s Palace, which is also an iconic architectural landmark of Patna, after recent reports in a section of local media predicted that the famous building “may have to face the wrecking ball” to make way for a five-star hotel.

These reports triggered outrage among a large number of historians, academics, conservation architects and other heritage enthusiasts and non-governmental organizations working on heritage conservation, who demanded that the Bihar government preserve this “jewel of Patna” and make it a part of the heritage hotel project as originally envisaged and made public in 2017.

On September 10, 2024, the Bihar Cabinet approved the proposal to build a five-star heritage hotel under the public-private partnership (PPP) model on the site of the iconic Sultan Palace in the heart of Patna, reversing the decision to demolish it for the project in 2022, preserving the over a century-old historical structure.

Stating that many historical buildings in the country have been or are being developed as tourism areas so that visitors can appreciate the cultural heritage, the minister was asked what will happen to the old building of the Sultan’s Palace, considering that some reports have once again brought up the possibility of ‘demolition’ of this building.

In Bihar, “wherever there are old hotels (buildings) or heritage structures, we will beautify them all,” Mr. Gupta said in the presence of the state tourism minister and other senior officials of the tourism department.

However, he did not elaborate on his comments.

This is the first official reaction from the Bihar Tourism Department since a report on the Sultan Palace project published in a leading Indian daily from Patna on April 16 raised eyebrows.

The report, published a few days ahead of World Heritage Day (April 18), claimed that a “committee” chaired by the secretary of the state government’s arts and culture department had “found” that the Sultan’s Palace, built in 1922 as the residence of legendary lawyer Sir Sultan Ahmed, was “not listed as a heritage building”.

The report also included a prediction that the palace may have to “face the wrecking ball” to make room for a five-star hotel project. Until the State Cabinet expanded, the Bihar government or the tourism department did not issue any statement or statement regarding the status of the project or denied the report.

A senior official from the Bihar tourism department, which now owns the landmark building and is the lead agency for the project, said only when asked about the report in April: “We are yet to receive the report of the panel set up five-six months ago to review the conservation of the building and other aspects of the building.” However, the content of the panel ‘report’ or the composition and purpose of the panel has not yet been made public.

Many heritage lovers demanded that the committee’s structure, field of duty and its “report” on the Sultan Palace be “publicly disclosed”.

The statements made by the Minister of Tourism on Friday, although brief, alleviated the concerns of citizens about the fate of the historical palace to some extent.

Mr Gupta also told reporters that there were “many possibilities” in the tourism sector in Bihar and that “reflecting Bihar to the rest of India and the world at large will be my priority”.

Patna native and heritage activist Md Umar said, “The remarks made by the new Bihar Tourism Minister are welcome and raise hopes for heritage conservation in culturally rich Patna and the rest of Bihar, especially considering that Patna has lost many heritage buildings in the last few decades, including the 19th century Dak Bungalow (in 1990), Bankipore Central Jail (in 2010) and the iconic Dutch-era Patna Collection (in 2022) when received.” Ashraf said:

Mr Ashraf is also part of the citizens-led Patna group that is pushing to ensure the preservation of the Sultan’s Palace and “other vulnerable and unlisted heritage buildings in Bihar”.

Some members of this group had convened an emergency meeting in Patna on April 18, coinciding with World Heritage Day, to discuss ways to preserve the “famous Sultan of Patna”.

Following concerns expressed by citizens, the Delhi-based Bihar Chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) recently sent a letter on their behalf to Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighting the poor condition of “vulnerable heritage buildings” in Patna and other parts of Bihar and urging him to ensure the preservation of the Sultan’s Palace.

Citing ‘Vikas Bhi, Virasat Bhi’ as one of the key mantras of the Modi government, several citizens of Patna have suggested that the five-star hotel project should include the old Sultan’s Palace as a heritage wing, with the addition of new structures that complement the old architectural fabric of the iconic landmark.

A chorus has also risen from citizens to list and protect vulnerable heritage buildings in Patna and the rest of Bihar; Many experts say that not finding a place on any official list of any historic building “does not eliminate its heritage value” and that listing is already a “long, bureaucratic process”.

A publication titled “Patna: A Monumental History”, published in 2008 by the arts and culture department of the Bihar government, lists various historical buildings in the book, including the Sultan’s Palace.

Rajiv Soni, who lives in Kolkata and has also written a book on Patna’s heritage, said the Sultan’s Palace is a “true heritage” due to its age, over 100 years of history and architectural magnificence, and rightly finds its place in “Patna: A Monumental History”.

However, over the past few years, most of these heritage structures, including the century-old Patna Collectorate mentioned in the seminal 2008 publication, the iconic British-era Gole Market and the Anjuman Islamia Hall built in 1885, have been demolished by the state government and replaced with new, modern complexes, despite facing resistance from heritage enthusiasts.

Concerned citizens demanded that efforts be made to document not only the Sultan’s Palace but many other “historic but unprotected and unlisted heritage structures” remaining in Patna and the rest of Bihar, and preserve them for future generations, perhaps using a PPP model.