DP won’t dilute heritage panel powers :Hindustan Times

MUMBAI: After facing flak for not marking more than 1,000 heritage structures in its development blueprint (DP) and stripping the heritage panel of its powers, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation will restore the heritage panel’s role in the revised plan, confirmed officials.

The special Development Control Regulations in the DP, which is undergoing a revision, had proposed to take away the authority to approve changes to Grade 1 and Grade 3 heritage structures f rom Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee (MHCC), and place it with the municipal commissioner.

The move to do away with the committee’s prior approval was seen as an attempt to dilute restrictions on the development of heritage precincts.

“We are not aiming to undermine the mandate of the panel and there will be no such proposal in the revised development plan. The panel consists of historians and people with thorough knowledge of the city’s architecture. We are aware of the importance of the heritage structures. There is no point in taking away these powers from them,” said a senior official from the civic body.

If this change in the panel’s powers would have been passed, nearly 20,000 buildings would have been open for redevelopment without the MHCC’s nod.

Mumbai was the first city to adopt progressive heritage conservation norms in 1995, when section 67 of the Development Control Regulations was sanctioned.

In addition, the civic body has also confirmed that more than 70% of heritage structures, which were not marked earlier in the DP, will now be included in the list attached to the plan as reference.

After the DP came led to an uproar from activists and citizens f or allotting high floor space index (FSI) and for wrong marking of the heritage structures in the city, earlier in April, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis asked the BMC to revise the plan and publish it within four months.