New Delhi: Plans are afoot to revitalise lesser-known old monuments in South Delhi and showcase them as tourist sites, and adaptively reuse a heritage building in Mehrauli as a restaurant, officials said on
Sunday.
South Delhi Mayor Mukesh Suryan said the old building in Mehrauli has Mughal-style architecture and the restaurant has been envisioned to be set up on a public-private-partnership (PPP) model.
"Soon we will be issuing tenders to invite private players who wish to partner with us (south corporation), to offer people, both local and tourists, modern comforts in a heritage setting so that they appreciate our cultural and architectural heritage too," he said.
The mayor said former Union minister Vijay Goel, who owns the iconic heritage property 'Haveli Dharampura', has also shown interest in the project.
The iconic 19th century 'haveli' in Old Delhi was painstakingly restored over six years, and was among the landmarks from India that had earned a special mention in UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation in 2017. It is being used as a heritage hotel.
Suryan said Delhi has three major monuments — Red Fort, Humayun's Tomb and Qutub Minar — all UNESCO Heritage sites, but the city is also dotted with a large number of smaller but important sites, which people pass by on a daily basis but hardly notice like old domes and arches and tombs.
"Our vision is to showcase the heritage properties falling under our jurisdiction after refurbishing them in partnership with heritage bodies so that these places can also be visited by both locals and tourists. We must celebrate our heritage indiscriminately," he added.
The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) had recently set up a 'Heritage Conservation Cell' to protect 475 lesser-known heritage sites. A new e-book titled 'Glorious Heritage' published by the SDMC was unveiled with information on 108 of these.
The oldest heritage site mentioned in the book is Anangtal, an ancient reservoir in Mehrauli built during the Tomar dynasty rule, which was mentioned by Budh Sridhar in 1132, while the least old site is the Daryaganj Police Station constructed in 1930 by the British, the civic body said. Two more volumes of this book are being drafted.
South Delhi's areas like R K Puram, Green Park, Chirag Dilli, and Munirka are also home to many monumental sites but are surrounded with encroachments.
"We will approach the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to have the encroachment removed from our sites, and then have them refurbished so that they can become our cultural and monumental showpieces," Suryan said.
The SDMC in the meeting of its Standing Committee recently had decided to rent out some of its heritage properties, falling in its jurisdiction, for commercial use such as restaurants, guest houses, banks, retail shopping centres.
B K Oberoi, chairman of the SDMC's standing committee said that on a pilot basis the civic body will rent out one of its buildings at Mehrauli which is about 100 years old.