Feedback   
HOWRAH MUNICIPAL CORPORATION
 
Home About Us Citizen's Charter Contact Us

 




Architecture

GUIDELINES FOR THE OWNER OF HERITAGE BUILDINGS

     As per international charters for restoration, preservation and conservation of historical builidngs, sites and monuments, Govt. of India is one of the signatories to follow the Charters made onward 1966. One of the important Charters is Venice Charter. Govt. of West Bengal enacted the West Bengal Town and Country (Planning & Development) Act in 1979 for planned development of Rural and Urban areas in West Bengal. Under this Act, in sub-clause 11 of clause (a) of Sub-Section 4 of Section 31, it has been mentioned that land use and development control plan is to be prepared for urban and rural areas as and when required that will indicate areas or buildings requiring preservation and conservation for historical, architectural, environmental, ecological & religious purposes. The West Bengal Heritage Commission Act, 2001 was implemented for that purpose and respective inclusion of the Act was made in the Howrah Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 1999 (with effect from 17.04.2000) in its Section No. 183A-183P of Chapter XIIA.

     Under the provision of Section 2, clause (14B) of the Howrah Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act 1999, the definition for "Heritage Building" has been given as any building of one or more premises or any part thereof which requires preservation and conservation of historical, architectural and environmental or ecological purpose and includes such portions of the land adjoining such building or any part thereof as may be required for fencing or covering or otherwise preserving such building and also includes the areas and buildings requiring preservation and conservation for the purpose as aforesaid. 

     Definition of Heritage Conservation Committee means the Heritage Conservation Committee constituted under the Sub-Section 1 of the Section 183D of the said Act. 


Inventory of Heritage Buildings
                                                                                                                              Top
    Since a large part of India's cultural heritage has so far remained undocumented, preparing an inventory of heritage buildings worthy of preservation is the most important task. There are two types of Cards for listing: 
(i) Index Card - Both in English and Bengali versions.
(ii) Proforma for recording Historical Properties Historical Properties during listing

                                  
Purpose of Listing
                                                                                                                                                                        Top
    The historical buildings require protection for restoration, preservation, etc as new developments always require additional spaces withing urban areas. To protect those structures it is important to make a list of historical structures. The main purpose of Listing is to assist municipalities, local bodies and development authorities in identification. There is a guideline for listing the heritage buildings or structres as per Act. The guidelines are as follows:     

a) Examples as a work of art
b) Exceptional piece of architectures
c) A missing link for a technical development
d) Related with great events or eminent persons
e) As a precinct: where a group of buildings depicts certain period, functions and phenomenon.
f) More than 100 years old.


HERITAGE CONSERVATION COMMITTEE AND ITS MEMBERS
                                                                                                                                                                         Top
The Heritage Conservation Committee was set up in 2002 as per The Howrah Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 1999 (with effect from 17.04.2000) and vide Mayor-in-Council Meeting Decision no. 36 dated 19.04.2002. It consists of the following persons:

Chairman                                                           Convenor

Sri Durgadas Goswami                                                   Sri Basudeb Mukhopadhyay
Commissioner, Howrah Municipal Corporation           Chief Architect, Howrah Municipal Corporation
4, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Howrah - 711 101.       4, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Howrah - 711 101.
Phone: 2641-3636, Fax: 2641-5846.                           Phone: 2641-2929 / 2641-6551.

                                                                Members


                                                                                                                                                                           Top
Sri Pranab Kumar Mitra                                                                           Dr. Goutam Sengupta
Director, Advance Planning Unit                                                             Directortorate of Archaeology & Museums
Fourth Floor, Unnayan Bhawan                                                              Dept. of Information & Cultural Affairs
Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority                                         Govt. of West Bengal
Salt Lake City                                                                                          4th Floor, 33, Chittaranjan Avenue
Kolkata - 700 091.                                                                                   Kolkata - 700 012.
Phone: 2359-2622; 2337-1002; Extn. 270                                             Phone: 2211-6635; 2281-5553

Prof (Dr.) Manju Halder                                                                           Sri Bijan Chowdhury
Dept. of Architecture & Regional Planning                                              Artist
Bengal Engg & Science University                                                           Saheb Bagan, P.O.:Samabaypalli
Shibpur Botanical Garden                                                                        Bally
Howrah - 711 103.                                                                                  Howrah - 711 205.
Phone: 2668-4561/62/63; Extn. 408                                                      Phone: 2671-2040.

Sri Somnath Narayan                                                                               Prof. Suman Bandopadhyay
Senior Environmental Engineer                                                               
W. B. Pollution Control Board (Howrah Regional Office)                         53/1/3/1/3, Dharmatala Lane
7, Harideb Bhattacharjee Lane, Shibpur                                                 Shibpur
Howrah - 711 102.                                                                                  Howrah - 711 102.
Phone: 2678-6355/4677                                                                         Phone: 2642-7811

Sri Bijan Chakraborty                                                                               Sri Arup Mukhopadhyay
Chief Engineer                                                                                         Chief Engineer
Howrah Municipal Corporation                                                                 Howrah Improvement Trust
4, Mahatma Gandhi Road                                                                        19, G.T. Road (S)
Howrah - 711 101.                                                                                   Howrah - 711 101.
Phone: 2641-0830                                                                                   Phone: 2641-1659

                              
                                                            Invitee Members

Sri Gopal Mukherjee                                                                                 Sri Nisitendra Nath Som
Mayor,                                                                                                     Professor, HUDCO Chair
Howrah Municipal Corporation                                                                 Administrative Training Institute
4, Mahatma Gandhi Road                                                                        1st Fl., Annex Building, FC Block, Salt Lake City
Howrah - 711 101.                                                                                  Kolkata - 700 106.
Phone: 2641-1332                                                                                   Phone: 2321-9359
 

LIST OF HERITAGE BUILDINGS IN HOWRAH MUNICIPAL CORPORATION AREA
                                                                                                                                                                               Top
Initially CMDA published the following list of buildings in the Land Use and Development Control Plan as 
List of areas and / or buildings requiring Preservation Conservation for historical, architectural, environmental or ecological point of view as follows. Later on, HMC in its MIC meeting, item no. 22 of dated 13.02.1999, Sl. No. 3 and Corporation Meeting dated 29.04.1999 in Item No. 1, declared the following buildings and sites as Heritage Buildings and sites.

1. Howrah Railway Station Building: on western bank of river Hooghly in the station campus.

2. Howrah Town Hall (At the Crossing of M.G. Road and Sri Harendra Kumar Sarani on the Southern Portion of the Central Office of HMC)

3. Howrah Telegraph Office Building (At the junction of Sri Harendra Kumar Sarani and M.G. Road and on south side of Bankim Setu flyover)

4. Colvin Court Building (On the north of Sri Harendra Nath Ghosh Sarani and inside Railway Colony)

Following structures are in Bengal Engineering & Science University, Shibpur Campus

5. Clock Tower

6. Madhusudan Bhavan

7. Workshop Building

8. Downing Hall

9. Heaton Hall

 In addition to the above buildings, following water bodies are also heritage sites for ecological balance of environment.

10. Santragachi Jala

11. Padmapukur Jala






Copyright 2007 by www.hmc.org.in. All Rights Reserved.