Page:Bulandshahr- Or, Sketches of an Indian District- Social, Historical and Architectural.djvu/99

 and agricultural produce. This road is all of made earth, raised eight feet above the level of the low river meadows, and is bordered north and south by lines of shops, which, with their verandahs, are 32 feet deep. Thus the road with its shops forms a solid stone-faced embankment 214 feet wide, and is 700 feet in length.

At the back of the shops, on the north side towards the open country, is a walled enclosure, comprising an area of nearly four acres, used as a paráo, or camping-ground for vehicles of all descriptions; and on the south side is a Saráe, or hostel for travellers. The shops, as seen from the central road-way, are only one story high; but from the low ground at the back they show a basement story besides, with vaulted cells, which are used as stables on the paráo side, and as travellers' quarters on the other. The entire cost of this extensive project up to the present time has been Rs. 56,416, including Rs. 9,800 for the actual embankment, Rs. 2,000 for the paráo wall and Rs. 900 for a masonry verandah to the Sarte rooms. The balance, viz., Rs. 43,716, was the cost of the shops.

Immediately opposite the ghát, the basement floor of the embankment is widened out into a spacious crypt-like building of five aisles, 70 feet long, which has direct access to the river by a subterranean passage carried under the roadway. This was constructed at a cost of Rs. 4,833. which was mainly defrayed by Chaudhri Lachhman Siṅh of Sikárpur, an Honorary Magistrate, and one of the wealthiest landed proprietors in the district, who made the donation as a thankoffering after recovery from a very severe illness. It is used as a Dharmsála, or rest-house for the poor, and is admirably adapted for the purpose from its coolness and its situation at the very entrance of the town. in close proximity both to the river and the market.

The shops on the embankment are divided into four blocks, of which three, containing in all 46 shops, have been completed; the fourth is postponed till such time as the increasing trade of the town may require it. Each line is broken in the centre by a gateway, one leading into the paráo, the other on to a new street, which communicates with the saráe and the main bazar of the town. The depth of both these gates allows of the construction of an upper room with the fair interior dimensions of 18 feet by 20. One room is on the point of completion, and will serve for the ordinary monthly meetings of the Municipal Committee, who have hitherto had no