Heritage plan hits NTC move to sell mill plot

MUMBAI: Even as the National Textile Corporation (NTC) prepares to sell off the bulk of its mills in central Mumbai, a seven-year-old proposal to preserve some of them as heritage structures has been resurrected.
The proposal, first mooted by the Charles Correa committee on mill land redevelopment in 1996, was recently tabled before the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) heritage conservation committee, which is headed by former Mumbai municipal commissioner D.M.Sukthankar.
Based on an extensive survey of the 26 NTC mills — the Correa committee was not allowed entry into private mills — the panel suggested that a few mills could be conserved to showcase Mumbai’s textile and industrial past. The panel, which comprised architects, had also identified individual buildings with architectural and historical value in mill compounds.
“The mills are a structural representation of our textile heritage, so many people feel that they should be preserved. However, we have just started discussing the proposal,’’ says Sukthankar, who added that the committee may re-survey the mills before taking a decision.
From the outside, the textile mills of Parel appear stark structures, without decorative appeal. Yet, conservation architects say they are architecturally unique, having stone chimneys and walls, imported castiron pillars and Mangalore tiles.
More importantly, they symbolise a crucial period in the city’s history — when the mills made Mumbai a textile powerhouse and employed half of Mumbai’s workforce. “This is our last opportunity to save this layer of our history,� says architect Pankaj Joshi. Adds Sandhya Sawant, a heritage committee member, “They have a historic and sentimental value.�
Conservation architect Vikas Dilwari, who worked on the proposal in 1996, says that the mills are important from “the industrial-archaeological point of view�. “This is an emerging field that looks at the heritage of the industrial revolution — the early use of iron work, the kind of machines invented,� he says.
But given that the industry has virtually vanished from the area, and mill workers are disappearing,would preservation of the bare buildings be only about nostalgia? Dilwari agrees that it’s not worth conserving all the mills. Adds Sawant, “Practically speaking, only one or two are worth preserving and they could be turned into museums. But many of the structures are in very good condition. So, instead of tearing them down and starting anew, they could be reused.�
This is already happening with private mills like Phoenix, where malls like Big Bazaar have come up. But architects consider Phoenix a bad example of conservation. “Dividing it up into so many offices and shops puts too great a burden on the infrastructure,’’ says Dilwari, who added that many old factories abroad have been successfully adapted to modern uses, like the landmark Tate art gallery in London.
However, if some of the buildings were declared heritage structures, redevelopment would have to comply with certain regulations and this may be unacceptable to the NTC. But architects claim the regulations would not be very restrictive.
The original proposal lists about 172 structures in 24 mill compounds, but over half are categorised as Grade III heritage structures, which allow a great deal of flexibility when reused.