200-year-old Thane church yet to get ‘heritage structure’ tag

The Christian community in Thane may have to wait longer to get the ancient Portuguese church at Pokharan road declared as a state protected monument.  This is because the TMC has failed to enlist the said structure in Thane’s heritage list.

Since 2012, Melwyn Fernandes and parishioners of Our Lady of Mercy Church, Pokharan road II, Thane have been struggling to get the protected monument tag for the church. “Built in 1562, this is an ancient church and, like other structures in the city, needs to be protected and preserved,” says Fernandes.

It was Bandra resident Vinod Roshan D’Souza who wrote to the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums last year about the need to preserve this church.  “It is a monument of Indo-Portuguese architecture and needs to be preserved,” says D’souza who takes up various social causes.

However, in a reply dated January 18, 2018 the directorate replied that it is the TMC which has to include it in the heritage structure list.  

When DNA spoke to TMC commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal, he said, “The heritage committee is examining the proposal.  However, according to a TMC official, there is hardly anything to preserve.”