National Monuments Authority (NMA) member secretary Navneet Soni said on Saturday that the heritage by-laws, drafted in accordance with the provisions of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2010, for Purana Qila and the Khair-ul-Manazil mosque, will be out in the public domain “within a week”.
NMA drafting rules
While only the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) can carry out repairs in the 100 metre-span from a protected area, which is called the prohibited area, the area starting from 100 metres from such a monument till 300 metres away from it is the “regulated area”, as per the Act. For the regulated areas, the NMA is drafting heritage by-laws for each monument or group of monuments that will determine the nature of new construction activity.
With several government colonies like Bapa Nagar and Kaka Nagar in the vicinity of Purana Qila and Khair-ul-Manazil mosque, the proposed by-laws will lay down restrictions on the height of new constructions, among other features.
Mr. Soni said the by-laws would be aimed at ensuring new constructions are “in harmony” with the protected monuments. After these two monuments in Delhi, the NMA will be working towards finalising by-laws for several monuments in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, for which drafts have been received from regional officials, he said.
Formed in 2010 with the enactment of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act (AMASR), the NMA has been tasked with coming up with heritage by-laws for protected monuments in the country. In Delhi, draft by-laws for a group of monuments in the historic Nizamuddin basti were published last month.
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