The Sambhal administration came to know about the structure on Saturday after which excavation work began, but was stopped the same evening and resumed on Sunday morning.

“A stepwell, around 150 years’ old and covering an area of 400 square metres, has been unearthed during excavation in the Lakshman Ganj area of Chandausi,” said Chandausi Nagar Palika executive officer Krishna Kumar Sonkar.

Sambhal district magistrate Rajender Pensiya came to know about the stepwell after a local resident Kaushal Kishore, who is also an office bearer of an organisation known as the Sanatan Sewak Sangh, handed over a letter to the DM on Saturday, informing him about the stepwell in Chandausi.

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According to the DM, a Banke Bihari temple is also located near the stepwell and it is in a dilapidated condition.

The district magistrate and other senior officials of the Sambhal administration reached the spot on Sunday morning and resumed the excavation work.

The stepwell was excavated beneath an open plot of land in a populated area after more than an hour of digging by earthmovers.

The stepwell is registered in revenue records as “Bilari ki Rani ki Bavadi”, according to Krishna Kumar Sonkar, executive officer, Chandausi Nagar Palika.

The exact period of the stepwell could not be ascertained, said officials of the Sambhal administration.

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After the excavation done till Sunday evening, the walls of stepwells and four rooms were visible.

“All steps will be taken to restore the ancient structure,” district magistrate Rajender Pensiya said.

The revelation comes after a four-member team of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on December 20 carried out a survey and carbon dating at the Kartik Mahadev temple, also known as Bhasma Shankar temple, at Khaggu Sarai in Sambhal, five other Hindu pilgrimage sites, including Bhadrak Ashram, Swargdeep and Chakrapani and 19 wells.

The Kartik Mahadev temple was reopened after 46 years on December 13 after the authorities said they stumbled upon the structure during a drive against power theft. It had remained locked since 1978. The temple has an idol of Lord Hanuman and a Shivling.

The second round of the same survey of the temple and the other Hindu religious sites was carried out on December 21. The ASI team collected artefacts recovered from wells, besides samples from the temple’s walls for carbon dating.