Email
Print
ShareMumbai: Box grills and air conditioning units, which mar the facade of the city's architectural treasures, may have to go. The Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee (MHCC) has formulated regulations to get rid of these eyesores. If it is not possible to remove them completely, they will have to be tucked away in places where they are less visible from the outside.
The MHCC has recommended that there should not be any air conditioning unit on the facades of heritage buildings. "AC units can only be installed on side or rear elevations and in clefts on walls (not in front), where they will be hidden. However, the MHCC will consider cases having no such option," said a member of the committee.
In a recent meeting, the MHCC objected to the rampant vandalising of heritage buildings. Box grills on treasured structures, like the Mumbadevi Temple Trust building at Kalbadevi and Mani Bhavan, where Mahatma Gandhi used to live, robbed them of heritage value. "At many places, the box grills mar the grandeur of the heritage buildings. We have made suitable recommendations while amending the heritage regulations. They will soon be submitted to the state government for its approval," Dinesh Afzalpurkar, chairman of the MHCC, said.
Another recommendation made is that there should not be any neon signages on heritage buildings. "Members feel that the grandeur of heritage structures is marred by these glow signs. Wraparound signages too look bad, and will not be permitted. The signages that are permitted cannot come in any shape or size. They have to conform to the recommendations made by the MHCC," said another committee member.
Historian Sharda Dwivedi said that all buildings in the Horniman Circle have ACs on side elevations. "There is someone out there making a lot of money from box grills. I have seen box grills in art deco buildings in the city, even on the sixth and seventh floors. It is ridiculous. The MHCC recommendations to have box grills and ACs removed from the facades of heritage structures come as a positive move," she said.
