The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has announced that it will undertake annual restoration work on key heritage sites and statues across the Fort area. Most of these locations have already been restored including Flora Fountain, Fitzgerald Fountain, Kothari Pyau, Baba Saheb Ambedkar statue at Madam Cama Road, and the Firozshah Mehta statue at Mahapalika Road, to name a few.
A shortened or mini version of the repairs and restoration will be performed on these structures annually. A senior official from the civic heritage department said that this will help the iconic structures maintain their appearance while also avoiding recurring restoration works in the region.
“We have undertaken a lot of restoration work of heritage precincts in the past few years. However, the BMC administration is not able to keep up with the maintenance of heritage precincts, or statues. It is needed to maintain a pristine look of the area, ensure tourists continue to enjoy the heritage structures, and they do not fall into disrepair over the next few years,” the official went on to say.
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Speaking on the Kothari Pyau, the official said, “The Kothari Pyau was restored by BMC just a couple of years ago. But due to improper maintenance of its premises, not many people are using the fountain or noticing it even. The structures need constant care and repair.”
The civic body will offer maintenance contracts of these heritage precincts to contractors while bids have been invited for the same. The contractors will be tasked with maintaining the look of the premises including the cleaning and polishing of grills, protective structures, among other things. They will also have to take care of lighting and/or water engineering if the region has a fountain in working condition.
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The Flora Fountain at Fort’s Hutatma Chowk went through elaborate restoration works in 2018-19. The newly appointed contractor will have to make sure the fountain remains in working condition with steam cleaning while also conducting minor repairs whenever needed and apply algaecide to avoid the formation of algae.
Contractors appointed to maintain the historic Fitzgerald Fountain will have to check the nuts and bolts of the structure to ensure it remains in working condition. This 152-year old fountain was restored and repaired by the BMC in 2019-20 which included the replacing of several missing components.
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