JOIN USA'bid'e to save heritage sites
The BHC will develop and maintain a registry of heritage sites in the metropolitan region, to be known as the Bengaluru Heritage Register (BHR). This was decided at a special session of ABIDe held here on Tuesday. The focus of the session was not the usual infrastructure, transportation or traffic issues, but to chalk out an action plan for preservation of heritage and historical structures of the City under the ambitious ‘Plan Bengaluru 2020’ vision document - ‘Bringing Back a Bengaluru of Kempegowda’s Dreams’.
The establishment of the BHC is among one among the many recommendations made in a ‘Heritage’ booklet containing recommendations and increased awareness on the importance of historical buildings/structures in the City that was released at the special session of ABIDe.
It is authored by Sanjay Sridhar and Ashwin Mahesh. Prof Ashwin Mahesh from the IIM(B), co-author of the booklet said, “The BHC aims at protection and preservation of cultural, structural, natural heritage that includes man-made and natural lakes of the City. These include identifying and suggesting heritage as per the BHR. We are hopeful that the Government accepts the recommendations as it did in the ABIDe transportation initiative viz BIG 10 and Kendra Sarige buses. It would be submitted to the Government in the first week of June.”
The action plan further suggests that the commission will oversee heritage conservation efforts for all locations in the Bangalore Metropolitan Region (BMR), that are not within the jurisdiction of the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) or the Karnataka Archaeology
Department.
‘Museum of Bengaluru’
ABIDe will first host the plan on its website and seek public consultations, after which it is to be sent to the State Cabinet for approval. The heritage booklet also suggests establishment of a ‘Museum of Bengaluru’ in the premises of Mayo Hall, in addition to a creation of Bengaluru Heritage Register, that would include an exhaustive compilation of the heritage of the City.
This register will be be maintained and updated every three years to reflect the evolving character of the City. The idea behind the initiative is to facilitate protection of heritage explained Prof Mahesh.
What the booklet recommends
* Protection and preservation of cultural, structural, natural heritage of the City
* Suitable legislation needed to establish BHC
* Statutorily established, the BHC members should have a fixed term of 5 years
* International standards and best practices in the study of conservation of urban heritage must be undertaken, to help develop the ‘Heritage Plan’ for BMR
* BHC shall develop and maintain a registry of heritage sites in the metropolitan region, to be known as the BHR