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Civic body to restore 200-yr-old milestones
The civic body has revived its year-old plan to restore 11 of the 15 heritage milestones that were installed in the city 200 years ago .
The civic body has revived its year-old plan to restore 11 of the 15 heritage milestones that were installed in the city 200 years ago .
The only way travellers in Mumbai could figure out how far they had travelled around 200 years ago was by spotting these milestones. Between 1817 and 1837, 15 such milestones were installed from the zero point — St Thomas Cathedral in present day Fort — up to Dadar and Sion, with distances marked on them in Roman numbers. These were approximately five-foot tall, so they could be spotted from horse-drawn carriages from a distance.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) now plans to install replicas of the remaining four milestones at their original locations. Each milestone will also get a QR code on an adjoining plaque, linked to the BMC website for information about the marker’s history. A senior civic official of BMC’s heritage department who is spearheading the ₹18.36-lakh project, said, “We have traced 11 of the 15 milestones. Even though two of them were already restored by the local ward one year ago, the heritage cell will restore all 11 uniformly. Replicas of the missing ones will also be placed.”
The restoration will involve excavating the milestones that are in some cases partly or entirely buried under footpaths or hidden among encroachments, replacing broken or chipped parts using the Dutchman method, including filling the cracks, cleaning the surface of the stone with specialised water misting techniques, applying non-reactive anti-fungal chemical on it that is approved by ASI and beautifying the surrounding area.
