Panel hears citizens, wants heritage precincts, gaothans marked clearly

In a bid to keep Mumbai’s heritage buildings and precincts safe, the planning panel has recommended that these areas be clearly marked in the draft development plan 2034.

The six-member committee has also recommended that gaothans and koliwadas be clearly identified and super-imposed on the plan — a demand several activists and citizens groups have been making since 2015.

When heritage structures were not marked in the draft, civic officials had said the revision process was underway.

Experts recommended the structures be marked to prevent their misuse and ensure buffer zones around them.

A senior civic official, however, said, doing this will be cumbersome, as the revision process of the heritage list is underway.

“For now, we will mark the structures and precincts from the 2012 heritage list.”

The 2012 list includes 948 monuments and precincts that were classified as Grade I, II and III, to prevent it from being taken over for real estate.

The revision process of this list is underway.

Apart from this, the six-member committee has also recommended that religious structures that are a part of the heritage list should also be marked.

Several Christian groups had pointed out that structures like the Mount Mary Basilica, Mount Carmel and St Andrew’s Church were not marked in the draft DP.

Pankaj Joshi, executive director of the Urban Design Research Institute (UDRI), a body of town planners said, “It is a welcome move as these were the points citizens opposed the most. Several communities and religious groups had placed their demands before the committee.”

After activists pointed out that the gaothans and koliwadas were marked as mere points on the plan, with no boundaries delineated — even though they were marked separately in DP 1991, the committee suggested in its report to mark their boundaries clearly in the DP.

It reads, “The state government has constituted a committee to delineate the koliwada boundaries and their extent. On finalisation of the same, these would be superimposed on the DP.”

The local natives or inhabitants of the city live in these 88 gaothans and koliwadas across the city, the report mentions.