DP paves way for redevelopment of Grade III heritage structures

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The BMC commissioner’s bungalow at Carmichael road itself is a Grade III structure, and so are several of the state ministers’ bungalows at Malabar Hill and Carmichael Road. Prime properties such as the sea-face buildings at Chowpatty, residential houses at Five gardens, and villas and bungalows in Bandra, the Parsi colony of Cusrow Baug in Colaba are all listed Grade III structures. Some of the other prominent structures in this group include the historic Lincoln House in Breach candy and Birla House in Malabar Hill. In 2009, the heritage panel had turned down industrialist Yash Birla’s proposal to convert the two-storey bungalow into a 40 storey high-rise. Similarly the grade III protection had put a spanner in the works of the US consulate’s attempts to sell the Lincoln House, which was the erstwhile palace of Maharaja of Wakaner from where it functioned for six decades, despite having a line-up of prospective buyers such as Tata Housing.

The proposed heritage list of an additional 868 structures and sites, which also has a long listing under the grade III and precinct category along with Grade I and II, has been entirely omitted from the 20-year-long land-use maps. In fact, the proposed list had recommended upgrading of select precincts and structures such as Banganga tank to grade I and the temples surrounding it to Grade II according it the highest level of protection.

Grade III structures are defined as those that ‘evoke architectural, aesthetic or sociological interest’ while precincts are a group of structures that may not have any individual value but give the area its unique character. Until now, the heritage committee’s nod was required to extend the structure or build additional buildings in the complex. Reconstruction of the structure itself was allowed by the panel only in case it was found to be in a poor condition.

A couple of years ago, the state government modified rules to allow for redevelopment of Grade III cessed buildings of South Mumbai. “While giving our suggestions during the DP preparation, we had in fact protested against even the dilution that was made in case of cessed structures but BMC has now allowed for blanket redevelopment of all such grade III structures,” said Mumbai heritage Conservation Committee chairman V Ranganathan. While the heritage committee no longer has any power to protect such structures, if the height of the reconstructed building exceeds 30 m, the developer only requires a special nod of the BMC commissioner.

Vidhyadhar Phatak, adviser to the BMC for its DP, said the deletion of Grade III and precincts from heritage regulations was done to “simplify the approval process for redevelopment.”

Heritage panel member and conservation architect Vikas Dilawari pointed out that the words ‘conservation’ or ‘heritage’ are conspicuous by their absence even in the executive summary of the draft DP while ‘construction’ and ‘redevelopment’ find repeated mentions. “Grade III structures and precincts are the grains in the fabric around landmarks in Mumbai. Without it, the distinct local flavour of most areas of Mumbai will be eroded,” he said.

shalini.nair@expressindia.com