Mumbai: BMC is India’s first civic body to launch ‘Heritage Walk’

By Quaid Najmi Mumbai, Jan 30 : The first batch of 15 excited, wide-eyed tourists entered the hallowed portals of the iconic BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) building – the headquarters of Asia’s richest civic body which administers India’s commercial capital – for the inaugural ‘Heritage Walk’ here on Saturday.
The tourists were accorded a warm welcome with flowers by Mayor Kishori Pednekar, the first two – Archana A. Nevrekar and Sitaram N. Shetty – were presented a memento, and all in the group were gifted a copy of the BMC’s 2021 calendar.
“This is the first municipal corporation in the country to organise such a Heritage Walk. This initiative will boost tourism and also give Mumbai an identity as a tourist destination,” said BMC Municipal Commissioner I.S. Chahal.
In an aggressive bid to boost tourism, the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation and BMC came up with the joint proposal to conduct the Heritage Walk inside the 128-year-old BMC building.
Among the most-recognisable landmarks of Mumbai, the building was built in the Victorian Gothic Revival style with golden beige basalt rockstones in 1893, by architect Frederick W. Stevens – who also designed the UNESCO World Heritage site Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, just opposite the BMC headquarters – said a civic official.
The BMC building was built on a 6,600-sq metre plot of land at a cost of almost Rs 11,20,000, below the estimated costs, and the construction work of the awe-inspiring monument was completed in less than 50 months.