Urban News

Bengaluru, Aug. 30: Few know that Visvesvaraya Towers on Ambedkdar Veedhi stands at the spot where renowned engineer and former Dewan of Mysore Sir M. Visvesvaraya’s home was once located. There is, of course, no trace of it today. It is only one of the many heritage bungalows once occupied by ordinary people and the more famous, including maharajas of old and British officers, that have disappeared from the city’s heritage map over the years to make way for newer buildings, with successive governments displaying little vision in the matter of protecting historical structures like Sir MV’s home.

And the process is, unfortunately, still continuing. Several buildings, some even dating back to the late 1800s, may be replaced by newer ones as their owners are finding keeping them intact an uphill task. Many are now ready to throw up their hands and call it a day as far as their old properties go as they have little support from the government in preserving them.

Several bungalows built in Bengaluru in the 1800s are European in architecture. Many of them still dot Malleswaram, Basavanagudi and Chamarajpet. But increasingly, they are being sold or demolished to make way for new structures.

“Maintaining 100-year-old structures is not an easy task, especially when there is no support from the government. If these structures have to be saved, the government must take urgent steps to identify them and help in renovation,” says veteran historian Dr Suryanath Kamath.

“Why are people only now making a hue and cry over felling of trees and the likely harm to heritage structures due to the Metro rail and widening of roads, when the alignment of these projects was made public a long time ago?” he asks.

Ganachari M., a senior citizen from Basavanagudi, says it will be a sorry day when Bengaluru, which has already lost many of its lakes and avenue trees, says goodbye to the last of its heritage structures. “Modernisation and protection of monuments must go hand in hand,” he points out.