Most Mumbaikars do the South-for-work, North-back-home routine in a clockwork manner, dodging a hawker here, a road divider there, day after day. But almost every overstretched Mumbaikar will tell you that they have paused more than once to take in the beauty of the Victorian Gothic and Art Deco masterpieces in the Fort area.
The area got its name from a fort that the British constructed in the 17th century to protect the city from invaders. The fort was demolished in the 1860s, but the name stayed.
According to the Urban Design Research Institute’s Fort Management Plan, “The delineation of the Fort precinct is based on the historical extent of what was originally the fortified town. The area encompassed in this fashion is literally the ‘Fort area’.”
However, it says, once the fortifications were removed, the limits were expanded, new public buildings were built in the area “integral to the precinct” : they were designed to physically and visually reinforce the original settlement.
“These buildings (Crawford Market, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, Metro Cinema), besides being consistent in terms of architecture and urban design qualities, are integral to the visual image of the Fort precinct when approached either from the North or from the South.”
The precinct is thus rich in colonial history, art and architecture, and in 2018, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Restoration in progress
In May that year, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) took up the Fort restoration project. The greatest challenge before the BMC was uneven footpaths, unplanned billboards, overgrown trees, bus stops, stalls and illegal hawkers that blocked a view of the heritage buildings.
Restoration of the corporate district, art district, Oval Maidan, the heritage mile, civic node, tourist district and banking district are all part of the plan. The BMC will spruce up footpaths, re-design bus stops and de-clutter streets. It also plans to bring in an arborist to trim trees.
As a first step, the BMC will focus on the heritage mile, the 900-m stretch of M.G. Road from Flora Fountain to Regal. This part of the project has a March 2020 deadline, which the corporation is not likely to meet.
M.G. Road was chosen as it consists of an ensemble of neo-Gothic and Art Deco architecture: the National Gallery of Modern Art, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahlaya (formerly Prince of Wales Museum), Esplanade Mansion, Mumbai University and even residential buildings.
The project will be replicated in the entire Fort area, making it worthy of the UNESCO Art Deco precinct tag.
When the BMC conceived the project, though, its bids found no takers. But in January 2020, the corporation finalised a contractor for ₹7.51 crore, who will also maintain the precinct for three years after the project is completed.
Under the pilot project, street lights, signages, trees, bus stops and billboards in the area will be changed. For example, bus stops will be replaced with heritage lookalikes using transparent and toughened glass, while billboards of restaurants and corporate offices will be standardised.
Overgrown trees will be pruned to uniform height to offer a clear view of the heritage structures, footpaths will be made more pedestrian-friendly by using in-situ concrete [the concrete is poured on site and cast in place. The other method uses pre-cast concrete, wherein concrete blocks are created in a closed environment, transported to site and kept in place].
Other works include changing the look of of dustbins, tree gratings, benches and flower beds, removing encroachments and displaying information plaques on heritage buildings. Footpaths will also be made disabled-friendly.
“About 70% work on base preparation of the footpath outside the National Gallery of Modern Art is done. While working on this footpath, we re-aligned several stalls and in doing so, had to restore their electric connections,” said an officer from the BMC’s Heritage Cell.
Ducts under the footpath will ensure it will not be dug up for utilities in future, the officer said. The footpath outside Mumbai University will continue to have its basalt stone flooring.
The new bus stop design is minimalist and ensures there are no horizontal hoardings above. Instead, advertisements will an be placed vertically at eye level of the person standing at the bus stop, without hindering the view of the buildings. “We also conducted a comprehensive exercise to find out redundant signages and poles to declutter the Mile. The ward office has been asked to act on it immediately. Several of these signages or poles have been lying here for decades despite not serving any purpose,” the officer said.
The street lights in the area, he said, illuminate the road but not the footpath. “That is why we want two-way street lights to promote pedestrian traffic.”
Challenges
Standardising shop signages may not be cakewalk for the BMC; it will involve organising several meetings with shop, store and restaurant owners of the area.
The BMC is yet to write to shop owners in the area to ask them to standardise their signboards. “We will be holding meetings with shop owners to tell them about the project. They will have to adhere to a particular size of signboard, but we may allow them to retain their font and colours,” said Ashutosh Salil, Deputy Municipal Commissioner in charge of the project. “The rule will apply to every single one of them. Hopefully, we will not have to use the law,” he said.
The BMC is also yet to finalise its agreement with an arborist. The corporation’s Tree Cell is in talks with one to trim the trees and look after them for several years.
The other roadblock the project may come up against is realignment of the hawking pitches and removing unlicensed hawkers. Only licensed hawkers will be allowed to function on the stretch and they will have to adhere to the allocated space in a single file, a move that might meet with opposition.
The BMC is thus hoping to complete the work by May, missing its March deadline.
Conservationists have appreciated the project, but arer concerned about the slow pace of work. “This is a good project if implemented properly but its progress is slow,” said Rajan Jaykar, convenor of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage.
“There are standardised signs on D.N. Road in Fort but not on M.G. Road. M.G. Road was neglected despite having heritage buildings like Esplanade Mansion,” said Mr. Rajan.
The BMC should also try and relocate hawkers, and put up illuminated plaques with information of each heritage building, he said.
Whether the BMC can pull all these off given its tight deadline is unclear, although the city will be richer with the restoration.