In a major fillip to conservation, the Puducherry government has notified the regulatory norms for conservation of heritage sites by amending the Puducherry Town and Country Planning Act. Puducherry is one of the few cities in India besides Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad to have a regulation for protection of heritage buildings and precincts.
“The regulation would apply to all listed heritage buildings in the city. Under this regulation, development or redevelopment or engineering operation or additions/alterations, repairs, renovation, including painting of the building, replacement of special features, or plastering or demolition of any part thereof of the said listed buildings or listed precincts will not be allowed without the prior permission of the committee comprising Commissioner, Municipality, and Member-Secretary of the Planning Authority,” said P. Jawahar, secretary to Local Administration Department. As the regulation has been officially notified, the next step is to constitute a Heritage Conservation Committee.
The committee has to finalise a list of heritage buildings and put it in public domain for 30 days. The committee will be constituted soon, he said.
Statutory powers
Mr. Jawahar said the Heritage Conservation Committee would have the statutory powers to notify heritage buildings and precincts. And after the heritage buildings are notified, they cannot be demolished or modified without the approval of this Heritage Committee.
The committee would include the Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department, representatives from the Local Administration Department, Tourism Department, Art and Culture, Structural Engineer, Architect, Urban Designer, Historian, Environmentalist, Conservation Architect and representatives from the State Department of Archaeology as its members.
Intach study
According to Ashok Panda, co-convenor of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach), “The regulation will enable Intach along with the Government of Puducherry to preserve many heritage buildings in Tamil and French part of the Boulevard town. INTACH has prepared a detailed list of all heritage buildings and a copy has been submitted to the government.”
In 1995, a broad study by the Intach had declared 1,807 buildings in the boulevard as heritage structures. In 2005, this number fell to 1,173.
However, in 2008, a few more buildings were added to the list increasing the total to 1,184. In 2010, after changing the listing classification in line with the national practices as per the recommendations of the Ministry of Urban Development, the number was pruned to 980 buildings.
In 2013, a survey done by Intach has updated the listings of all heritage buildings in the boulevard town. The number of heritage buildings was only 488, he said.
Mr. Panda said that Intach, along with the Government of Puducherry, would start work on preparing an exhaustive dossier for Puducherry to be listed under Unesco World Heritage Cities.
