The West Bengal Heritage Commission is in the process of chronicling buildings with rich architectural grandeur and past history in the city to save these edifices from being razed down, said its chairman Suvaprasanna.
Many such buildings retaining magnificent art deco characteristics - situated in north Kolkata as well as in parts of old south Kolkata neighbourhood - are associated with great names or have some historical references but unless the owners or someone associated with the building takes up the issue with the commission of giving Heritage tag to the building, the panel itself does not usually act on its own, the celebrated painter told PTI.
Asked if the commission can act sou motu, Suvaprasanna said in cases which merit such response, the commission takes the initiative and "We make it clear the heritage label doesn't affect the upkeep of the property on the part of the owner but the heritage characteristics cannot be tinkered with."
Art Deco architecture is defined by sleek, linear, often rectangular geometric forms, arranged and broken up by curved ornamental elements.
To a question, Suvaprasanna said the commission had enlisted 553 buildings as heritage structures when it was helmed by Prof Pratap Chandra Chunder.
The actual work of the Commission started in 2005 under the chairmanship of Prof Pratap Chandra Chunder as the panel was constituted in early 2000. A number of buildings were declared as heritage and quite a few sites were taken up for restoration.
The commission is in the process of updating the list, he said, adding that no specific figure can be given now.
Suvaprasanna said the commission would do the needful regarding the building at 48 Kailash Bose Street in north Kolkata where the first widow marriage took place on December 7, 1856 in the presence of social reformer and polymath Iswarchandra Vidyasagar.
On that evening, 165 years back, widow Kalimati, the daughter of an aristocratic family, was married to one Sanskrit scholar and besides Vidyasagar, luminaries like Kaliprasanna Singha were present on that evening to bless the couple.
"Yes going by the rich history of the building, it merits a heritage tag in a graded manner. But there is a process which we have started. We will do the needful," Suvaprasanna added.