Guided tours, light and sound show at BMC HQ

In a bid to boost tourism in the city, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is planning to organise guided tours of its 127-year-old headquarters building at

In a bid to boost tourism in the city, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is planning to organise guided tours of its 127-year-old headquarters building at Fort.

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The civic body also plans to organise light and sound shows at the heritage building.

These initiatives are likely to be organised on weekends and public holidays, or after BMC’s daily working hours.

The light and sound shows will include short videos about Mumbai, its landmarks, heritage, and milestones in its history. The technique of projection mapping will be used to project images or short videos onto the building.

A senior civic official said, “The heritage building is as beautiful inside as it is outside. BMC wants to organise guided tours for visitors to see the heritage dome of the main building, the staircase, and other architecture of the building, such as its many corridors, arched doorways, windows, etc. There will also be a light and sound show.”

Another officer associated with the project told Hindustan Times that BMC wants to showcase Mumbai’s growth, its famous textile industry, history and significance of heritage buildings and locations.

The officer said, “BMC will have to first appoint a historian for the project, and we will take it all forward from there.”

Information about the functioning of the BMC’s various functionings, such as how drinking water is supplied to the city, what is road repair work and stormwater drain work, etc will be displayed.

Apart from that, the history of various man-made or natural heritage landmarks in the city such as the Gilbert Hill (a monolith column of black basalt rock, approximately 66 million-year-old), information on BMC’s efforts at conservation of this heritage, etc will be displayed.

The BMC headquarters is a Grade I heritage structure. While its construction began in 1884, it was completed in 1893 making the building 127-year--old from the time of completion of its construction.

HT had first reported in January about BMC’s plan to open its headquarters for guided tours by tying up with experts and travel agencies.