Free prime land for development: Panel

If the heritage review committee has its way, there's much to rejoice for residents of Dadar's Hindu and Parsi colonies.

The committee is in favour of taking the heritage precinct tag off the Hindu colony and reducing the scope of heritage precinct in the Parsi Colony and has submitted a report to municipal commissioner Sitaram Kunte.

Sources say the committee also has recommended taking the BDD chawl entirely of the heritage tag. A few listed heritage structures have been kept in Hindu colony, even though the heritage precinct tag has been taken off the colony.

Lawrence D' Costa, a resident of BDD chawl, said, "Hope the government finalises the recommendations soon. Many of us have been waiting to redevelop our homes and make bigger rooms. Hopefully, it will be possible now."

The committee, headed by former chief secretary Dinesh Afzalpurkar, was appointed by the state government.

The recommendations follow several public hearings in the areas. Committee members say 99% residents objected to the grade II A tag. While a grade III tag will enable redevelopment up to 24 metres without special permission, a grade II tag protects a structure from redevelopment without written permission from the BMC chief.

The committee also recommended putting five gardens and Parsi colony together as a single entity. So, as per the committee's recommendations, the overall size of the heritage precinct there will shrink in size.

Parsi colony was put as a heritage precinct in the old 1995 heritage list, while Hindu colony featured as a heritage precinct in the proposed heritage list published in 2012.

For the Khodadas circle area in Dadar, the committee only recommended rearrangement of its outline and not any major changes, while several chawls and old structures in the Parel-Lalbaug belt has been freed from the heritage tag.

Other recommendations include partial removal of the heritage tag from certain old chawls, which have heritage character. For the Krishnaji Nagar chawl in Parel that has a heritage character, the review committee recommended retaining the stone frontage of the chawl that faces the Dr Ambedkar road, while allowing tenants to redevelop the rear side.

Similarly, for the Wadia Children's hospital in Parel, the committee has recommended keeping the main building as a grade II B heritage structure, while allowing redevelopment in the rest of the building.

After going through the committee's recommendations, Kunte will forward it to the state urban development department, which will take a final call.

In January last year, residents of Parsi Colony, Hindu Colony and extended boundaries of existing Five Gardens had approached the Bombay high court, challenging the proposed heritage precinct listing, arguing that their buildings "do not have any heritage value".

A Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee member, however, said, "It is a wrong notion that the buildings under heritage precinct cannot go for redevelopment. It's just that redevelopment has to follow certain norms."

Heritage precincts are a group of structures that may not have any individual value but give an area a unique character.

At present, there are 633 Grade I, II, III listed structures and precincts that were notified two decades ago. In 2012, following a detailed revision of the heritage list, 868 additional structures and sites were proposed to be notified.

Building a city

If a building is listed as Grade I, it is deemed to be of national or historical importance and no structural changes are allowed. A 100 metre buffer zone around it restricts any construction activity.
Grade III structures and precincts are those considered important to the townscape. Grade II comprises building/ precincts of regional or local importance, of a lower order than that of heritage grade I. They are local landmarks contributing to the image and identity of the city.