1,500 suggestions/ objections made on south Mumbai heritage list

MUMBAI: The review panel of the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee has received almost 1,500 suggestions and objections on the heritage structures and precincts in wards A, B, C, D and E. It will start reviewing the proposed heritage list for 2012 from next week.
The existing list has around 537 structures and the proposed list mentions an additional 404 for the five wards, known to have a greater concentration of heritage sites than anywhere else in the city.Covering areas like Jamshedji Tata road, Madam Cama Road, Cooperage Road and Veer Nariman Road in A ward, Babulnath tank, Mazgaon Road, Dongri and Abdul Rehman Street in B ward, Princess Street, Marine Drive and Dr Cawasji Hormusji Lane in C ward, Khetwadi, Walkeshwar and Bhulabhai Desai Road in D ward, and Sane Guruji Marg, Clare Road and Dr Mascarenhas Road in E ward, these have many landmark structures of historical and cultural significance as well as clusters of impressive art deco buildings.
Headed by retired IAS officer Dinesh Afzalpurkar, the panel set up in 2013 to review the new heritage list sent its report on four wards — F-North, F–South, G-North and G-South — to municipal commissioner Sitaram Kunte last week. The commissioner is likely to add his comments and forward the report to the state urban development department.
The panel reportedly took about four months to deal with these four wards. The five southern-most wards in the island city is bound to take the committee much more time.
“The number of suggestions/objections received cumulatively is four times more than what we received for the structures we reviewed in the earlier wards. However, efforts will be made to expedite the process,” said a member.
Keeping in mind the huge number of suggestions/objections, the panel plans to hear out people in batches of 25- 50 from the same locality depending on the input received. “Most of the issues from these wards are about redevelopment of old buildings. After giving them a hearing, a site inspection will be done by our members. We have old photographs of these areas and structures which should be of importance while deciding on the entries,” said a review committee member.
Nayana Kathpalia, activist and trustee of NGO NAGAR, said the heritage structures on the list were picked by seasoned experts and architects who were sensitive to the architecture and history of Mumbai. “Due credit must be given to the work of these experts and the review committee needs to be extra careful while reviewing the list for these areas which have structures of great historical significance,” she added.
Activists accepted that it was important that owners of heritage structures be given incentives to encourage them to maintain them.
'DP rules could make redevpt unviable'
Builders and architects have complained that stringent norms in the draft development plan could discourage redevelopment of old, dilapidated chawls and cessed buildings.
Most cessed buildings are on very small plots, and conditions like open space around it, providing lifts and parking space for every dwelling unit need to be rationalized , they said.
"The provisions for open spaces, exorbitant premium and constraints on permissible FSI will cumulatively make redevelopment of cessed properties economically unviable," said Harresh Mehta, president of the Property Redevelopers Association, which had demanded 25% FSI incentive for amalgamated schemes of two or more plots and exemption from FSI premium. Developers argued that the entire permissible FSI must be consumed in-situ (on the same plot) to ensure viability of redevelopment schemes.