After getting the civic body's notice, Haji Ali Dargah Trust decides to cut the 4-storey structure beside the 400-year-old heritage shrine down to size.
The city’s municipal corporation has issued a notice to the Haji Ali Dargah Trust asking it to remove a construction beside the shrine. It wants the construction removed as it appears to be rising taller than the iconic dome of the dargah.
The structure is a rest house being repaired alongside the shrine complex.
Experts from the city’s heritage conservation committee had raised concern that construction of the rest house dwarfs the iconic dome which could mar the overall beauty of the 400-year-old Sufi shrine and diminish its heritage value by overshadowing the dome.
The Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee has asked the municipal corporation’s building proposals department to inspect the site and submit a report. The move came after a committee member brought to the panel’s notice the structure, now about four storeys tall, adjacent to the dargah.
The heritage committee’s chairman, V Ranganathan, told DNA that the building proposals department had inspected the site and informed the heritage panel that the construction being carried out at the Dargah is beyond the limit of the approved plan.
“The department officials have also informed us that they have issued a notice to the trust asking it to remove the construction,” he said.
Office-bearers of the Haji Ali trust admitted they have received the notice from the civic body.
“We have decided to dismantle the constructed portion above the dome or more, if required, to preserve the beauty of the structure. We will follow all suggestions given to us to preserve its beauty,” said chairman of the trust, Abdul Sattar Merchant.
“It is a mistake of our architect who prepared the plan. We too did not discuss the plan which led to the construction above the dome,” he added.
Merchant added that the trust is carrying out repairing and rebuilding of the 40-year-old rest house, which includes the close-circuit television camera room, hall, water tank to deal with the increasing number of pilgrims.
He said that nearly 30,000 people visit the dargah daily and the number goes up to 1lakh on Sundays. “We decided to construct a hall and water tank for their convenience,” said Merchant.
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