There is a growing concern for heritage and environmental preservation in the public domain.

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In Delhi, which is gearing up for the Commonwealth Games, in Kolkata where developers and state agencies are seeking to protect an old heritage before it becomes extinct and in Mumbai where private investment into preservation is beginning to take shape. An attachment to the past and the realisation that precious little has been done so far to preserve it, is forcing a new order which looks upon preservation both as commerce and art.

What is a heritage building or structure? Is it only determined by age? Unesco in its Charter in 1972 clearly defined heritage properties as groups of buildings, separate or connected, which because of their architecture, their homogeneity or their place in the landscape, are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science. As of now, this is the most widely accepted definition of heritage property, in India and globally.

Despite no commonly held consensus on how to preserve and restore heritage structures or whether to involve private players (developers) in the job, there are some interesting islands of conservation.

For instance, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has employed heritage contractors to spruce up historical sites in Delhi well in time before the Commonwealth Games begin.

Work is in progress on 46 monuments in the capital, which are to be restored ahead of the Commonwealth Games in October when a large number of tourists are expected to flock to Delhi. Out of the 46 identified protected monuments at Delhi, work has been completed at 28 monuments and for the remaining ones it will be over by mid-September, well before the Commonwealth Games, minister of state for planning V Narayanasamy told Lok Sabha recently.

Among the monuments that are being spruced up include some presiding icons of Delhi’s skyline: the Red Fort, Jantar Mantar, Safdarjung Tomb and the Qutub Minar complex.

According to plans, the ASI, the apex body that protects and maintains historical monuments, is also considering solar lighting at Jantar Mantar, Purana Qila, Red Fort, Qutub Minar, Humayun's Tomb and Safdarjung's Tomb.

Capex incurred on conservation, preservation and environmental development of centrally-protected monuments have happily showed a steady curve. From little over Rs 128.86 crores in 2007-2008 to Rs 134.98 crores in 2008-09 to Rs 153 crores in 2009-10.

Vikram Raheja of Raheja Developers, said, “Heritage sites are in abundance in every nook and corner of this vast country though they have not been preserved well in quite a few places. Sensitisation about these sites is a must so that the citizens take pride in their heritage. Also, developers as well as the government can do restoration by converting these sites into heritage hotels, resorts as well as destinations in themselves as investments.”

According to the Commonwealth Games GTO or game travel office, in Delhi, of the 15,000 rooms available, not more than 3,000 have been occupied so far. A GTO executive said, “We are hoping that these restoration sights would add significant value to the tourism landscape of the capital.”

However, the days of involving private developers in heritage restoration is still a little iffy. For instance, Sovan Chatterjee, the new mayor of Kolkata, is clearly opposed to the idea. “We must preserve all heritage buildings in the city and maintain them with due status. Such properties should never be allowed to be misused by promoters for commercial purpose,” Chatterjee told FC Estate.

Notwithstanding his claims, as many as 46 identified heritage buildings in the city have already been delisted and are being handed over to private developers. Chatterjee avers that the process had started before the present board came to power.

The Kolkata mayor said all papers relating to this transfer process would be scrutinised strictly and all building plans over these properties, if any, would be shelved.

“We must prevent transfer of these buildings and restore their heritage status,” Chatterjee said emphatically.

Well those are his views. Elsewhere, in Kolkata itself, there are examples of private players getting into restoring heritage building.

Consider this. To commemorate Kolkata's tercentenary, the project ‘A Homage’ was launched by Suresh Neotia of Ambuja Cement and Harshavardhan Neotia of Ambuja Realty in association with the West Bengal government. Famed painter Bikash Bhattacharya portrayed 12 eminent sons of Bengal.

The paintings were auctioned and the city's business houses participated enthusiastically.

All the paintings were sold and a fund of Rs 1.15 crore was created, in the name of A Homage Trust. Then these funds were utilised to restore the Town Hall. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation agreed to the restoration proposal submitted by the trust.

Swami Vivekananda’s ancestral house in north Kolkata has also been restored after five years of extensive civil works and has now been opened to general public. The 18th century building was in a dilapidated state and was becoming worse by the day. Ramkrishna Mission had acquired it, along with an adjacent plot, in May 1999 through the state government. For the state’s tourism department, it means revenues.

A committee was set up comprising, among others, conservation engineers of the ASI to advise on the renovation and coordinate with the agencies involved in the process, Ramakrishna Mission officials told FC Estate.

According to them, the ancestral house had been restored without changing any of its original architectural features. It houses Swami Vivekanand’s birthplace, meditation hall (at first floor) and museum, where some of the articles used by him and his family lie preserved.

This has been done with a capital outlay

of Rs 20 crore, of which Rs 9.90 crore came

as central grant while the rest flowed in from the state government and donations to Ramakrishna Mission.

The important thing here is that the second property has been restored without changing the original architect. Chatterjee explained, “Preservation and restoration are different things. Preservation may be defined as the maintenance necessity in order to maintain the building precinct or artefact in its present state and to prevent and retard deterioration. Restoration, on its part, may be defined as the means necessary to return the fabric to its known earlier state by means of removal of accretions or reassembling existing components or by sensitive introduction of compatible materials.”

But it is in India’s commercial capital where heritage restoration is finding value for money. Alkesh Jain, COO of Mumbai-based Neev Infrastructure (NIPL), feels that the original architectural features of a heritage building need to be protected and maintained by all means. “And if need be developers need to engage historians and people from archaeological departments while carrying out such projects,” Jain told FC Estate.

NIPL, incidentally, has bagged a contract for renovation of the old heritage main building of King Edward Memorial (KEM) hospital on behalf of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM).

The renovation of the hospital began in October 2009 and about 15 per cent of the work has been completed. Designed by renowned architect George Wittet in 1926, the KEM Hospital is spread across a vast swathe of 5, 23,400 sq ft. The two buildings of KEM Hospital standing tall since the past 80 years have weathered out and are dilapidated.

Mumbai also boasts of many iconic heritage structures like the Gateway of India, Elephanta Caves and Victoria Terminus, among others.

Many NGOs and organisations have taken up the cause of heritage restoration in order to help the preservation and restoration of the city’s rich cultural heritage. However, these efforts may not be enough to save many of these

iconic monuments as delays and lack of proper expertise may cause further damage.

“It is time we rise to the occasion and take up heritage restoration projects as part of our social responsibility. We have started it in Mumbai and are open to taking up similar projects elsewhere too,” Jain added.

Historic preservation, according to Jain, refers to the action or process of accurately revealing, recovering or representing the state of a historic building, as it appeared at a particular period in its history, while protecting its heritage value.

Work is often performed to reverse decay, or alterations made to the building after its initial construction. A part of heritage restoration can involve the replacement of outdated heating and cooling systems with newer ones, or the installation of climate controls that never existed at the time of building.

Physical materials of an earlier time, that might have been state of the art at the time of construction, might have failed and now need replacement with contemporary better functioning, but aesthetically similar materials.

The Delhi government is very keen to showcase the capital's rich heritage to tourists expected to throng the city during the Commonwealth Games and has made several plans to that effect.

Most heritage sites owned by the government have undergone some level of restoration at some point of their lives. The government prefers to keep these precious buildings safe for people to visit, and, sometimes they even attempt to reconstruct the fallen buildings so that people can get a taste of what the buildings looked like when they were in use.

Connaught Place, the iconic commercial centre designed for imperial Delhi by the British architect Robert Tor Russel is going through a complete makeover as the neo-Palladian architecture was losing its charm underneath a flurry of office blocks and restaurants. Others on the restoration radar are the famed Lodhi Gardens in central Delhi, Tughlaqabad Fort, Darwesh Shah’s Masjid and Gol Gumbad. Predictably, monuments that are getting a facelift are only those that are closer to the Games venue.

It may be recalled that nearly 10 years ago, a National Cultural Fund (NCF) was set up with the objective of paving way for public-private collaborations for conservation of monuments and heritage structures in Delhi. However, the public-private heritage conservation projects have not taken off the way it was envisaged.

The Jantar Mantar proposal was in the discussion stage for three years. Even the MoU on restoration of monuments in Lodhi Gardens was signed after discussions for about a year. If it finally takes off centred on the Commonwealth Games, so much the better for the showcase and heritage structures in Delhi.

(With Ankita Sethi and Amrita Das in New Delhi)