POLICY MAKERS CAN DO MORE, SAY ACTIVISTS

all the recent con servation success stories, there are voices of caution warning that not enough is being done by the policy makers.

“Building and developmen control regulations have been framed in such a way that they act as a disincentive to the pres ervation of heritage. If you reconstruct a building, you ge floor space index (FSI) of 3.9 and this is lucrative given the demand for land in Mumbai. So it is more profitable to raze a building,” said V Ranganathan veteran bureaucrat who used to head the Maharashtra Heritage Conservation Committee (MHCC). “Old buildings owned by government agencies stand neglected as not much is done to preserve them,” he points out.

Conservation architect Che tan Raikar, who was involved in the restoration of CST, said “You must conserve the past for a better future. But the city is still not doing enough for the protection of urban heritage as it should have.” Ranganathan said there were no incentives for private heritage conservation “There are no tax rebates or compensations for restoring or redeveloping old structures,” said Ranganathan.

But it’s not all gloom and doom. “Over the years, with people becoming more aware about these structures, we man aged to get the funding through government policy changes Many buildings like the Town Hall, Bombay High Court, Old Secretariat and other private ones came under the purview o the government. What started off as a citizen-led movemen has been able to transcend to the government level, with separate allocations for the protection o heritage buildings,” said Abha Lambah, conservation expert.

Vikas Dilawari, another con servation architect, has a differ ent opinion. He said there was lack of encouragement when i comes to allocating funds. “In the present set-up, there are no matching grants or encourage ment for repairs. Strange as i may sound, redevelopment gets incentive of FSI, but repair is completely neglected, which requires a fraction of FSI given for redevelopment,” he said.

A senior official from the MHCC identified the pros and cons for the current scenario when it comes to conserving heritage structures in Mumbai “The primary issue that we face especially in the Island city — from Colaba to Mahim — is tha 99% of them are cessed proper ties (under the aegis of Ren Control). There is a tendency to neglect these properties if rede velopment permissions are no in place, which results in them slowly disintegrating. There is also the lack of compensations and incentives, hence there are no buyers,” he said.

But the quality of restoration work needs improvement “While we are far more robus on a national level in terms o civic interaction and the gov ernment’s engagement, we are nowhere near internationa standards. If we pitch Mumba against a New York, London or Paris, we abysmally behind in terms of funding and a more holistic vision,” said Lambah.