DAM officials searching for historical monuments in AP capital region

Hyderabad, Feb 11: The Department of Archaeology and Museums (DAM) is currently conducting a detailed survey to identify archaeological monuments that could get damaged once the construction works of the new Andhra Pradesh capital in Guntur district begin, newspaper reports said. The reports quoted Assistant Director S. Bangaraiah of DAM who is believed to have said, “Technical assistants from the department are conducting village-to-village survey to find the historical monuments. If they find any such structure, we will first inform senior officials and later take up excavation to ascertain the age of the remnants so that they can get their place in the history texts. We are taking the assistance of villagers in this massive exercise.” In the recent past, the officials had unearthed Jain and Buddhist sites and some pre-historic burial sites in Guntur district. The sites are located in Penumaka, Vundavali, Vademanam and Vaikuntapuram. According to newspaper reports, the State government is likely to lay the foundation stone in June and begin the construction work from July.