Experts submit Dalhousie Square heritage precinct proposal to KMC
Times of India | 14 September 2024
Kolkata: A collective representing heritage enthusiasts and conservation architects has submitted a proposal to Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), delineating Dalhousie Square, now known as BBD Bag, as a heritage precinct.
The proposal drawn up by architects Partha Ranjan Das and Kamalika Bose along with writer Amit Chaudhuri, the founder of Calcutta Architectural Legacies (CAL), which has been citing the need for Kolkata to declare heritage precincts to preserve the city’s unique built heritage, was handed over to the KMC commissioner last week.Several other Indian cities, including Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Pondicherry, have heritage precincts that ensure that any new development does not alter the character of the zone.
CAL, which was set up around a decade ago by a group of like-minded citizens united in the common goal of working to prevent the disappearance of our city’s distinctive residential neighbourhoods and other marks of modernity unique to Kolkata, has been advocating the need to declare zones as heritage precincts to retain the character of these localities instead of focusing just on individual buildings.
The zone identified by CAL encapsulates not just some of the most prized heritage buildings in the city but also two centuries of British colonial history, when Dalhousie Square served as the administrative centre from where the British governed India.
The map that has been drawn up has Canning Street to the north, Old Court House Street to the east, Gosto Paul Sarani to the south and the eastern bank of the Hooghly to the west. Portions of Mahatma Gandhi Road and Rabindra Sarani have also been included.
“This is basically ward 45 that has 84 listed heritage structures, including 76 that are grade I structures. What we need next is a workshop where experts from cities where heritage precincts exist can suggest how Kolkata can adopt sustainable heritage,” said Das.
The attempt to declare Dalhousie Square as a heritage precinct was first taken in 2005 when conservation architect Manish Chakraborti made a presentation titled ‘Dalhousie Square Calcutta: A Heritage of the Nation’.
Chaudhuri, who has been championing the cause of heritage precincts beyond Dalhousie Square and has suggested the inclusion of College Square, Lake Temple Road and Bow Barracks, said it was an embarrassment that Kolkata still did not have a single heritage precinct.
The term ‘heritage precinct’ is recognised in KMC’s website and is defined as a neighbourhood or environs of a place or a group of buildings that share wholly or partly certain common physical, social, cultural significance worth preservation and conservation.