Panel fails to decide on Crawford

The Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee (MHCC) failed to take a decision on heritage grade of the 139-year Crawford market, reports Gigil Varghese.

The Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee (MHCC) failed to take a decision on heritage grade of the 139-year Crawford market. The committee was going to decide if the entire market complex is Grade I — under which the strictest rules of heritage conservation are followed — or only the clock tower would be Grade I.

HT Image

“We have written to the Urban Development Department for a clarification. We also discussed the issue,” said MHCC Chairman Dinesh Afzalpurkar.

T. Benjamin, principal secretary, Urban Development Department, said: “The decision will be taken by the chief minister.”

With the elections round the corner, the decision might be delayed by at least two months.

Conservation Architect Abha Narain Lambha said: “The committee has not intimated me about the approval for restoration plan.”

The controversy over the redevelopment of the Crawford Market in which a private developer was given the rights to redevelop the market with an FSI of 4 has been raging for two years. Higher the FSI, higher a developer can build on a plot. This would mean that the main heritage tower would be dwarfed by a glass building.

The MHCC will also visit the zoo to check if the heritage structures in the zoo are not changed around too much in the beautification plan, said Afzalpurkar.