Mumbai: Tulsi, Vihar, Powai lakes to get heritage tags

Tulsi (in picture) and Vihar, two of the three lakes tagged as industrial heritage, supply water to the city. File pic

Three of the city's water bodies are set to get a heritage tag. The Heritage Review Committee of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had suggested that the Tulsi, Vihar and Powai lakes, all man-made, be tagged as industrial heritage of the city. This tag will ensure that even the city's infrastructure is recognised and preserved. The tag has not been used before, revealed civic sources.

With this, the review committee's work on the heritage list published by the state government is complete, with 70% of places in it retained. The recommendation which marks these lakes as industrial heritage, has now been submitted to the municipal commissioner along with the heritage list for his approval.

Other structures, gradings reviewed
After the heritage list was published in 2012, there were objections by citizens due to which a review was called. The heritage structures and their gradings were reviewed by a committee set up under the chairmanship of Dinesh Afzalpurkar. This committee dealt with organising ward wise hearings and accordingly finalised the structures.

While heritage structures in 15 wards were finalised, the names of those in nine other wards have now been sent to the commissioner. They will then be sent to the state government. The final list of notified heritage structures will then be published, said officials.

As these three lakes were not part of the previous published heritage list, the review committee felt the need to incorporate them to recognise their importance. Two of the lakes supply water to the city. However, the tag will be just in name and works regarding the lakes will not require the permission of Mumbai Heritage and Conservation Committee, said civic officials.

Industrial heritage = infrastructure
A senior official from the BMC said, "The work of the review committee is complete, as they have submitted their list of all remaining suburban wards. While 70% of the published list was retained, there might have been few additions and deletions after the hearings. Mainly Gaothans with heritage significance have been retained, and the inclusions are Powai, Vihar and Tulsi lakes as industrial heritage."

He also said, "It is the first time that something like this has been proposed. However it will be the state government's call whether to accept or reject this recommendation." The Mumbai Heritage Review Committee chairman, Ramanath Jha, was unavailable for

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