Written by: Partha Sarathi Biswas
3 min readPuneOct 17, 2013 04:30 AM IST
First published on: Oct 17, 2013 at 04:30 AM IST
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) seems to be unsure about the historical importance of the iconic residential blocks of Ardeshir Bagh. Once listed as a grade III heritage structure,the present heritage committee of the PMC,has listed the structure as one of the “missing” structures from the heritage list.
Located off Covenant Street,these six buildings date back to 1931 and were built by the late Ardeshir Khodad Charitable Trust. It is one of the few exclusive Zorastrian colonies in the city. Consisting of six blocks,the residential complex once housed 14 families. True to its Zorastrian heritage,this complex has a small ground floor building, Bungli,which was used to perform the last rites of Parsis.
The INTACH heritage list had listed these buildings as grade III structure,which allowed for repair and renovation of the structures under stringent conditions. However,the present list seems to have left out the structure. In fact documents procured by
The Indian Express under the RTI Act,2005,shows that the heritage committee had once clubbed this structure with other grade III structures,which could not be “located”.
Minutes of the meeting of the heritage committee dated October 4,2011 shows that the issue of grade III heritage structures were taken up. It was decided that a team of members from the heritage committee would visit some of the structures to ascertain its heritage value. The minutes of the meeting showed that Ardeshir Bagh,was then listed under the heading of “Prinsict list”.
Sharvey Dhongade,member of the heritage committee of the PMC,defined prinsict list as the classification,which is used to define a perimeter as coming under heritage classification. “This list is not final and suggestions and objections have been asked for it,” he said.
“If listed under grade III heritage list,stringent norms would be applied but now suggestions and objections have been asked for this listing. This would put the fate of the structures uncertain,” a senior member of the heritage committee said. Executive engineer of heritage cell,Shyam Dhawale,said a final decision would be taken by a special committee,which would be announced by the state government to hear suggestions and objections on the revised DP.
Share
