Click to play videoMumbai: Hidden away in the cosmopolitan bustle of Mumbai, the heritage bungalows that date back to over 200-years are reminiscence of the pre-independence era. But a state order by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation plans to demolish the old structures for making high-rise apartments.
Keith Fonseca chats with his next-door neighbours standing on the porch of his 150-year-old family bungalow at Pali village, one of Mumbai's 187 Gaothans. He says the long-standing colony has been a way of life since past many generations.
Known as a slice of history, the villas are a part of the city where life hasn’t changed much from the sixteenth century. The old East Indian villages keep alive the age when you could shout out aloud to your neighbours and pat someone’s pet dog on along your evening stroll.
But the winds of change are rolling into these sylvan surrounds, especially with a state order that allows for taller buildings in place of the bungalows and shortens the distance between two plots. The residents here are worried.
“Everyone knows everyone here. WE have and our families have lived here for ages…over 150 years! Where will an old woman like me go? Where can we find such peaceful dwellings?” says Gaothan resident Jean Fernandes.
If these buglaows go, a whole way of life will go with them. The old structures are an integral part of Mumbai’s architectural heritage. But BMC Commissioner Jairaj Pathak doesn’t minds razing them to make space for taller buildings.
“In case there arises a dispute between the heritage committee, and us on whether this is a heritage structure or not, we will try to sort it out and convince them our point,” said the BMC Commissioner.
Some residents of the Gaothans have taken the fight to the court but if these new buildings are anything to go by, they might just be losing the battle.
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