How eager are the owners of old buildings to get a heritage tag for their properties? The answer: not very, if one goes by recently concluded Heritage Review Committee meetings in the F south, F north, G south, G north wards. The meetings, which invited suggestions and objections to the inclusion of different buildings and precincts in the heritage list, received over 900 responses from citizens concerned, said a committee member on the condition of anonymity. He said, "Over 90% of the responses were objections to getting heritage status for properties and precincts."
The wards mentioned above include areas like Dadar's Hindu colony, Parsi colony, Dastoorwadi areas, among others. Based on the suggestions/objections received, the report will be submitted to municipal commissioner Sitaram Kunte in the next few weeks, who will then be forwarding the report to the state government.
Pankaj Joshi, executive director of Urban Design Research institute, said that most of these objections are prompted by the builder lobby. "Most heritage structures have a lot of open spaces around them, so they have more scope of redevelopment, which is profitable. Most of them (the heritage building owners) are under the wrong impression that redeveloping their structures would be impossible under a heritage tag," he said.
"What they fail to realise is that for heritage structures, they will only have to follow the heritage guidelines and take an NOC from the MHCC," said Joshi.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had recently announced that the committee will come out with a set of guidelines for redevelopment of buildings in South Mumbai in the next few months. The guidelines will also mention where most of these old structures are located and whether several of them come under heritage precinct or are individually listed as heritage structures.
Afzalpurkar said, "We are yet to receive a direct communication in this regard from the CM. If we are to frame guidelines, we will ensure safeguarding of heritage structures, while talking of redevelopment of buildings where needed."
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