Deccan Chronicle         23.10.2013

Heritage buildings listed for posterity

Chennai: In
an attempt to conserve Chennai’s past heritage and glory, the Chennai
metropolitan development authority (CMDA) has finalised the first set of
66 heritage buildings to be conserved, and the list, according to
sources, has been sent to the state government for approval.

The
next list of 48 buildings, which includes several private buildings,
will be ready in three months. The Madras high court constituted the
Justice E. Padmanabhan committee in 2006 to identify heritage buildings
in the city.

The committee listed 467 buildings. Later, in 2010,
based on the orders of the high court, the CMDA constituted the heritage
conservation committee (HCC) to recommend conservation measures to
owners of the buildings.

The HCC made a list of 66 buildings in
the first phase, which the CMDA’s board cleared and has sent to state
government for approval.

“The HCC has started work to list an
additional 48 buildings and the work is expected to be completed in
three months,” the sources said, adding that it would take a year to
complete listing all 467 buildings.

The first list contains the
names of buildings like Theosophical Society headquarters building,
King’s Institute of Preventive Medicine, College of Engineering — main
building — Anna University, Birla Planetarium, Lakshmi Narayanan temple,
Erukunchery, and Armenian church.

The second list will include Chennai Central and Egmore railway stations and several private heritage buildings.