Inspired by the European Heritage Days, Alliance Francaise returns for the fifth consecutive year with its Heritage Week — and the guided tours that accompany it. Rafique Baghdadi and Sancia Sequeira will guide folks on three hour long tours, focusing on different parts of the city. Baghdadi’s trails include a tour of the city’s charming Irani cafes (September 25, 9.30 am), discovering the rich history of Mazgaon (September 21, 9 am) and exploring religious sites in Byculla (September 23, 9.30 am). Sequeira conducts a tour of Bandra (September 20, 9 am), a walk through the slums of Dharavi (September 22, 9.30 am) and a look at the South Indian communities of Matunga (September 24, 9 am). (more…)
Tag: east indian
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Tourists visit to Matharpacady Village from Portugal
A bus load of tourists (25-30) on a holiday to India visited our Village on Tuesday, 9th September ’14. They were staying at the Trident, at Bandra Kurla Complex and were visiting places in and around the city of Portuguese interest. They had already visited Daman & Diu, the Vasai (Bassein) Fort and now our Heritage Village before proceeding to visit Gloria Church at Byculla. (more…)
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Time Limit Set for Registering Documents – Times of India 15th August 2014
Aug 15 2014 : The Times of India (Mumbai)Time limit set for registering documents – Clara.Lewis@timesgroup.comFrom solemnization of marriage, registration of documents to appeal against orders determining the market value of a plot, the state government has now set a time frame within which services are to be delivered to citizens. -
Trending Today – Mumbai Mirror, 15th August 2014
Site specific
Holy Cross Oratory
Ali Akbar Mehta’s recent show documents the changing landscape of Mumbai’s first suburbs, Mazgaon and Wadibunder.As artist Ali Akbar Mehta settles on the mezzanine floor of Colaba’s alternative art space, Clark House Initiative, where his second-solo show, SITE : STAGE : STRUCTURE is on display, he tells you, “This space where we are sitting is a set-up of my maternal grandparents’ home, who lived in Mazgaon for 42 years; more than my entire life.” -
Mirzas make the most of HAM in silver years
Article that appeared in DNA of 14th July 2014
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New Year Eve Celebrations – 1980s
We are sure this will bring back memories of the New Year Eve Celebrations that we had year after year in Matharpacady.
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Mirror tried – When Mazgaon was hip
By Bhairavi Jhaveri, Mumbai Mirror | May 21, 2014, 12.00 AM IST
(Clockwise from left) A typical, recently refurbished, East Indian home; The entry to Lion’s Den and Dhiresh Sharma sharing anecdotes on the tour
It’s hard to imagine that the largely uncharacteristic industrial areas of Mazgaon and Byculla were once tony neighbourhoods; home to the Byculla Turf Club and lavish parties in country houses. “So, in a sense, Mazgaon was what Bandra is today, the first hip suburb of Mumbai,” Dhiresh Sharma of Travel Logs says, interrupting my train of thought. We smirk in disbelief before spending the next three hours winding our way through Matharpacady, the first East Indian village or gaothan of Mumbai.
Our group of four travellers – heritage explorer Leora Pezarkar, Matharpacady local Hansel Baptista, Sharma and I are to take a few lefts and rights to the monotonous hammering of woodwork inside a dilapidated mansion.
And suddenly, we are standing before the defining landmark of the area – its mango trees that fruit twice a year. The numbers are down to just one, and this one bears fruit in May and October, standing tall before the yellow Lion’s Den bungalow. “This is possibly where someone important once lived, going by the two lion heads at the entrance of the house,” says Sharma. At the turn of the 18th century, wealthy merchants including Jamshedji Jeejeebhoy moved from the Fort area to set up country homes in Mazgaon, and some remnants of the elaborate mansions from 100 years ago still stand.
A township built, nurtured and populated by the East Indians, Matharpacady is an enchanting Portuguese hamlet distinguished by Moorish architecture, split-level coloured houses with staircases, dexterous woodwork and sloping brick roofs. Two of these belong to Joseph “Kaka” Baptista’s family, the late Indian politician and activist who worked closely with Lokmanya Tilak. Next, Pezarkar and Baptista lead us to the decrepit Matharpacady Club, a community house that was used by locals to unwind over table tennis, billiards and cards until 10 years ago.
As Baptista shouts out to Uncle Jerry to check if we can drop into his home for an aerial view of the gaothan, you realise it’s a closeknit community. Kids whiz past on cycles, and the tinkle of a piano melts into hard rock.
The walk ends with a traditional East Indian dinner at Baptista’s home, jointly stirred up by him and his mother Marie. Over bombil fry, prawn pickle, sorpotel, hand bread, eggplant in bottle masala and fish curry-rice, the struggles to keep this gated community alive are forgotten. All we are focussing on by then is who gets that last piece of feathery-light coconut cake.
The Gaothan Saga is a 3-hour walk (Rs 1,750 per head including the traditional East Indian meal).
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Reap benefits of redevelopment without redeveloping
Reap benefits of redevelopment without redeveloping
The owners of heritage properties will now be able to enjoy the fruits of redevelopment without messing around with the history and architecture of their buildings.
In a shift from regulation to rewards, the new Heritage Regulation Policy proposes to allow the owners of such properties to not only sell the extra FSI available to them as Transfer Development Rights (TDR), but also sell it at market rates.
The move could boost the preservation of over 900 heritage structures in the city.
The earlier policy only provided some petty tax benefits to owners of heritage properties and allowed only plain vanilla transfer of extra FSI – that is 1000 sq ft of extra of FSI in Colaba would earn the owner 1000 sq ft of FSI in, say, Dahisar.
This obviously was not very attractive because 1000 sq ft of FSI in Colaba does not have the same value as 1000 sq ft of FSI in Dahisar.
According to civic rules, no TDR can be used in the island city. So, all the additional FSI available to the owners of heritage properties must be utilized in the suburbs.
The new policy changes this by linking the sale of extra FSI to its worth as per the government’s ready-reckoner rates. Simply put, if the owner of a heritage building in Colaba has 1000 sq ft of extra FSI, which he cannot utilize because he is not allowed to redevelop the building, he will get TDR rights worth the ready-reckoner value of the additional FSI he holds.
The ready reckoner rate in Colaba is Rs 19,000 per sq ft, which makes the value of 1000 sq ft of TDR Rs 1.9 crore.
The owner can thus use FSI worth Rs 1.9 crore in Dahisar. The ready reckoner rate in Dahisar is roughly Rs 8000 per sq ft. This means, the owner will get an FSI of nearly 2,300 sq ft in Dahisar.
The owner would then have a choice of either using this FSI in a property he may develop in the suburbs, or simply sell to it to a builder.
The Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee, whose brainchild the new policy is, had recently written to the state government’s Urban Development department, making it clear that unless an incentive-based policy was brought in, it would be difficult to save Mumbai’s heritage.
The new policy also makes provision for repairs and maintenance since owners of heritage buildings find it difficult to maintain old, doddering heritage structures. Many of the buildings are owned by landlords who hardly have funds to undertake routine repairs.
If an owner spends Rs 10 lakh on repairing his heritage building, then TDR worth Rs 10 lakh would be available to him for use in any building or project in the suburbs.
However, all such repairs will have to be carried out as per the sanctions of the MHCC. A heritage committee member, who did not wish to be identified, said the new policy will make sure that the owners of heritage properties do not suffer any loss. “The TDR incentive offered today is not enough as the loss of development opportunity is not adequately compensated.
Once it is linked to the ready-reckoner rates, the owner will have an incentive to maintain his building,” he said.
Pointing out that preservation of heritage is a collective responsibility of the city, the policy says: “It is strongly felt that heritage conservation is not getting due consideration from the owners of heritage properties because of the reliance on a regulatory mechanism rather than incentivization.”
Source: http://www.mumbaimirror.com/mumbai/cover-story/New-heritage-rules-to-improve-conservation-by-rewarding-owners/articleshow/19978006.cms
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Food E-Ville
The Matharpacady Residents Welfare Assocation alongwith the help of all the residents had a “Heritage Food-E-Ville” on Sunday 2nd March 2014 at the St. Isabels School grounds. This was the first ever Food Festival held with mouth watering snacks and dishes prepared by the residents. Besides the food stalls, there were group games conducted. The response to this event was overwhelming.
