The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is drawing up draft rules for the city’s built heritage, which include a provision for transferable development rights to encourage the owners of heritage structures to preserve them.
The draft rules also include a definition of “heritage precincts”.
Several Kolkatans and people with roots in Kolkata wrote to chief minister Mamata Banerjee recently requesting her to declare some pockets such as BBD Bag and College Square as heritage precincts or heritage zones.
The draft rules, if ratified, will introduce the concept of transferable development rights (TDR), said a member of the heritage conservation committee of the civicbody. The TDR allows the owner of a heritage property to earn compensation for not being able to pull down the structure and build a new one on the plot.
The KMC Act now does not allow granting TDR to heritage property owners.
“The owner of a building that is not a heritage structure can demolish it, construct a new one and earn money by selling it. But the owner can’t do that if the building is a heritage structure. Hence the concept of TDR, which is aimed at compensating the owner,” said a member of the committee.
The compensation can be in the form of additional built area on another plot.
“If the owner has any other plot in the city and wants to construct a building there, the TDR will grant him or her some additional built area on that plot. That will be over and above the built area the owner would have been allowed under the KMC building rules,” said the member.
The property owner will also have the option to sell the TDR to a real estate company or any individual who is constructing a building somewhere else.
“The whole idea of TDR is to adequately compensate the owner for keeping the heritage structure intact. Such incentives could enthuse owners of heritage buildings into thinking that it is better to keep the property in good condition than not maintaining it well,” said the member.
The owner of a heritage building can approach the KMC for a certificate mentioning all these details.
Engineers working in the field said the concept of TDR was already in use in other Indian cities, including Mumbai. It is popular in many other countries, too.
A KMC official said there are no rules for heritage conservation in the Kolkata municipal area. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation Act empowers the civic body to protect the city’s heritage but does not go into finer details, said the official.
“If there is a proposal to declare a building in Kolkata as a heritage structure, the heritage conservation committee is the sole authority to decide on it. We are trying to define the parameters based on which the heritage tag will be granted to the structure,” the official said.
The official said that just like the KMC building rules deal with finer details regarding construction of buildings, the heritage rules, too, will provide finer details on how to preserve the structures.
A member of the committee said the draft rules also standardise restoration and repairs of heritage structures.
“The pillars of a particular heritage hotel are made of cast iron. But now they are encased within concrete. The rules will standardise what is to be done in such a situation,” said the member.
The draft rules have to be ratified by the heritage conservation committee, mayoral council and the urban development and municipal affairs department before they are placed in the Assembly forapproval.
