Advisory Body to UNESCO Concerned Central Vista Project Will Alter Area’s Built Footprint
COMOS has written to the Delhi Urban Arts Commission asking for details on the sanction provided for the project.
The Central Vista plan includes a new parliament building next to the current one.
Dated : 22 Dec 2020 (IST)
Concerned about the prospective impact the Central Vista Redevelopment Project will have, the national committee of an advisory body to UNESCO had asked the Delhi Urban Arts Commission for details on the sanction provided for the new parliament building, the overall redevelopment project and how the new structures being planned will affect the skyline and exterior aesthetics of the area in New Delhi.
`Considerable impact to skyline may impact overall heritage’
In a letter sent to the Commission, responsible for preserving heritage and providing sanction for projects in the heart of Delhi, the national committee, called COMOS, of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), noted that the Central Vista redevelopment project “may potentially alter the built footprint of the area including considerable changes to the skyline, which may impact the overall heritage character of the place”.
President of COMOS, Navin Piplani, also asked in the letter for “details of what suggestions, inputs or considerations were made while granting approval to the project vis-à-vis effect to the skyline and exterior aesthetics, considering that the height of the proposed Parliament Building is reported to be 50m” and that it would be higher than that of India Gate that measures 42.5 metres. The `bhoomi puja’ or foundation stone laying ceremony for this new building was performed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week.
The letter, sent in early November, had also sought details of any technical impact studies and assessment with respect to the project.
Adherence to limits of acceptable change urged
COMOS has also asked if the entire redevelopment project was presented before the DUAC. It noted that “ICOMOS guidelines emphasise on the need to define the `limits of acceptable change’ that a redevelopment project may bring about to any given heritage precinct”. All such changes, whether adverse or beneficial, it said, need to be assessed objectively.
Seeking adherence to the UNESCO Charters and Declarations to which India is a signatory as a state party to UNESCO, the letter had also called on DUAC “to reconsider the unique value of this historic urban landscape in the greater interest of the nation, which expands to its shared cultural value and extends to the whole of the mankind.”
HCC urged to carry out heritage impact assessment
A letter was also sent by COMOS to the Heritage Conservation Committee (HCC) and it urged the panel to carry out a Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) of the Central Vista Redevelopment Project.
Stating that the Central Vista has “heritage significance’ since it forms part of the World Heritage Nomination Tentative list that India submitted to UNESCO in 2014 and since its precincts have been notified under Delhi Building Byelaws under the 141 Heritage Sites, the letter said the area’s significance is reflected in a “range of historic, built, cultural and environmental attributes.”
Therefore COMOS urged that the HIA be carried out to understand the “inherent values and significance of the site while measuring our probably impacts” and that such an assessment treat the Central Vista Heritage Precinct and other Notified Heritage Buildings in the area as a unified entity while evaluation the scale and severity of any impact.
Need to retain ‘public space’ character of area
In the case of HCC, the letter acknowledged that COMOS was aware that the Central Vista redevelopment project has not been submitted for the consideration and approval of the HCC as yet. It said the intention was to share the concerns which were founded in the fact that the Central Vista is a citizen’s public space that has transformed from being the King’s Way to Rajpath and has acquired a special meaning in the national discourse.
The letter also noted that Central Vista’s “uniqueness remains unparalleled at the global level, demonstrating multi-cultural tangible and intangible heritage values, including a link to the many historic layers of Delhi”.
According to a member of citizen’s collective, LokPATH, which comprises architects, urban planners, historians and people from other walks of life who have been speaking about the opacity, secrecy and shortcomings in the Central Vista project, the concerns raised by COMOS are yet to be addressed. “The letter has still not been taken up,” he said.
Earlier this month, while allowing the Centre to lay the foundation stone of the new parliament building, the Supreme Court directed that there should be “no construction or demolition, no cutting down any trees”. While pulling up the Centre for “moving forward aggressively” on the plan even as petitions challenging it were yet to be decided, the apex court held that “authorities are free to undertake formal process without altering site in question in any manner”.
