Though the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) spent three years to take over the half-demolished Currency Building, Bimal Bandyopadhyay, director, ASI Calcutta circle, promised on March 3 that once restored, he will try to turn the building into a resource centre on heritage.

This is something that the budding movement to preserve the city?s distinctive architecture and environment sadly lacks.

Bandyopadhyay was speaking at a seminar organised by the British Council and the Calcutta Tercentenary Trust (CTT) on architectural heritage and urban regeneration.

While summing up the seminar findings on March 4, Philippa Vaughan, project director of the CTT, decided that follow-up action will have to be taken on the resource centre proposed by the ASI.

While Debashis Som, commissioner of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC), tried to fob off participants by saying that the CMC heritage committee had not been up to much because of time constraints, under pressure from the participants, he was forced to admit that the CMC has no specific heritage cell .

Its work was being carried out by the chief municipal architect and town planner, who already had too much on his plate.

Kalyani Choudhury, secretary, public works department (PWD), was quite honest about her inability to cope with the problem of heritage.

The PWD is the custodian of a significant number of buildings belonging to the state government. She stressed that paucity of funds was a very real problem. Which is why the district magistrate?s bungalow in Howrah cannot be saved.

She gave the assurance that things were not being executed in the ?hamhanded? way they were done earlier, and that induction courses on heritage were being introduced for freshers.

On incentives for owners of heritage buildings, it was generally agreed that floor area ratio should be reduced substantially, as suggested by architect Partha Ranjan Das.

Representatives of the municipal affairs department, Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority and the Central Public Works Department were missed.