Heritage panel relaxes norms for Mahametro’s KP station

Nagpur: In a U-turn, the heritage conservation committee on Wednesday relaxed its condition for Mahametro to develop, operate and maintain Kasturchand Park (KP) in lieu of taking over a part of one of the city's most famous open spaces for a rail station.

On August 5, 2016, the panel had objected to Mahametro's plea seeking 408.459 sq m of KP land for the construction of a station. Then it decided to give its nod only on the condition that Mahametro would maintain and ensure cleanliness of the ground.

In its reply, the Mahametro said that the KP ground's jurisdiction is with the collector who accords permission for various activities and "is continuously used by general public as a playground". "The area is quite large and practically not possible to maintain. The law and order issues rests with the state police and only the collector can lay down the condition for its use for multiple activities around the year. With the congregation of lakhs of people attending prime events, the control on the maintenance is beyond our scope and powers," it said in its letter to the panel.

However, the Mahametro has offered to set up a projector screen on the wall of the proposed metro station for awareness messages as part of its continuous contribution to the city of Nagpur.

Apart from this, 13 different proposals including 11 pertaining to holding events at KP were discussed by the panel which was chaired by former Neeri director Tapan Chakrabarty and attended by additional deputy municipal commissioner Jayant Dandegaonkar, structural engineer PS Patankar, Nagpur University history department's Shubha Johri, urban designer Ashok Mokha and secretary member Supriya Thool and Dharampeth zone's assistant commissioner Mahesh Morone.

The panel also decided not to permit any commercial events or exhibitions at KP. However, public functions will be permitted.

The applications of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation, All India Handicraft Board and Vidarbha Handicraft Welfare Association for exhibitions were rejected. The panel has allowed the NMC to hold the birth centenary celebrations of industrialist Kasturchand Daga who had donated the playground to the state government.

The panel, however, withheld Mahametro's proposal to execute the works at Ambazari lake embankment. MLC Prakash Gajbhiye had lodged a complaint against the Mahametro for executing works without seeking permission.

Mahametro stated that its work would not do any harm to the lake's embankment as it had already carried out a technical study through a Nashik firm. The panel has asked it to submit the report to it.