Mumbaikars will get to witness a 95-year-old ‘Kothari Pyaav’ (drinking water trough) which stands opposite the General Post Office (GPO) near Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSTM) will soon be reopened for Mumbaikars with a reinstated drinking water supply.
Restoration work started eight months ago by a team of heritage conservationists from the BMC. The team restored the external walls of the pyaav and also carried out excavations to reveal some attributes of the stone structure.
It is estimated that the restoration work will be completed soon and the pyaav will be reopened in four months.
In 1923, the trough was built from Malad stone, Porbandar limestone, and Red Agra stone. Malad stone is a kind of basalt rock, also used in the construction of the CSTM building and the BMC headquarters.
Though it is one of the Mumbai’s rich architectural heritage, it is badly damaged by encroachments.
A civic official from the heritage cell told Hindustan Times,
The pyaav has a beautiful architecture, but several parts of it have gone missing over the years. One such example is the spout in the form of a lion’s head. We had to sample damaged architectural features from nearby heritage structures and recreate them in order to restore the symmetrical design of the structure. We have used modern techniques such as lime plastic repair and dutchpan repair, which includes using stone dust to recreate the lost architectural features of a heritage building.”
The civic body first demolished the adjoining shrine and then removed many layers of paint that overlapped and hid the original stone structure. The BMC spent ₹30 lakh for the entire process.
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