‘Delhi as destination’

NEW DELHI: Town planners, architects and historians are lobbying to make Delhi a heritage city. At a panel discussion on ‘Making Heritage Work’ organised by the Delhi Urban Arts Commission, heritage conservationists took up cudgels against archaic laws that have isolated Delhi’s heritage from its people.

AGK Menon, director, Tulsi Vidhya Bharatiya (TVB) school of Habitat Studies said, “We need to look at Delhi as a world heritage city such as Cairo or Istanbul. With 1200 listed heritage monuments, Delhi has the capacity to acquire the status. The approach has to be similar to the ones practiced internationally where heritage is combined with the idea of generating economic centres.”

Menon used the example of England which has cashed in on its heritage properties and created a booming tourism economy. “England has an entire thriving heritage industry, but it may have gone a bit overboard with it. With a systematic approach, we can achieve conservation while including the people of Delhi. Why is it that people choose Delhi as a route to Agra or Fatehpur Sikri? Why is it not ‘the’ destination,” he said.

Historian Narayani Gupta elaborated on the need to include societies with heritage. “We have to look at conservative and non-invasive use of heritage properties in Delhi like creating museums, parks and theatres within these structures. We can make use of these buildings instead of regarding them as ghost-like structures,” Gupta said.

Criticising the archaic State Act and Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) act, the panelists discussed reworking the rules to make heritage properties more accessible.