heritage development plan for varanasi - … development plan for varanasi: • basis for regulation...

HERITAGE DEVELOPMENT PLAN for

VARANASI

Sponsored by:

Varanasi Development Authority (VDA)

Prepared by:

Architectural Heritage Division,

Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH)

Oct 2011

Architectural Heritage Division, INTACH December ‘09

H E R I T A G E D E V E L O P M E N T P L A N F O R V A R A N A S I

The Eternal City of Varanasi as one of the highest

embodiments of

Indian culture, religion and spirituality

A potential world heritage city



Varanasi Historic City City – Oldest Living City of World…..

1900

2010



Heritage Development Plan for Varanasi:

• Basis for regulation of its heritage zones

• Basis for conserving the built cultural heritage of Varanasi

• Seeks to provide an interface of heritage management

with spatial planning to come up with a regulatory

framework for development that is heritage sensitive

Output: Regulations and guidelines in

consonance with the cultural character of the city

that may be processed as part of Master Plan/

Zonal Plans, Zonal Regulations and Development

Controls.



GENERATING BASE INFORMATION

• Cultural Resource Mapping & Inventorying/ Listing

•Typologies Include:

Temples, Mosques, Gateways, Ghats, Kunds, wells,

Residential Buildings, Dharmshalas, Civic Buildings,

Institutional Buildings etc.

•TOTAL 1370

Beside this there are 5 Heritage zones as per MP, & 5

proposed as Per HDP

Basis for heritage zoning and formulation of regulations in the HDP



REVIEW OF EXISTING FRAMEWORK

Sectors for Consideration

• Cultural & Natural heritage protection and management

• Spatial planning

• Local governance and Socio-economic planning for

development

• Infrastructure development

• Land management

• Visitor Management and Tourism

• Legal Framework & Institutional Mechanism



ISSUES:

Heritage Related Lack of protection to heritage for its conservation

Potential danger to religious atmosphere

Poor and/or no maintenance of heritage

Destroyed visual potential esply ghats

Development Related Increasing population

Shrinking spaces

Modifying urban spaces and heritage character

Tourism and pilgrimage pressures

Increasing traffic

Environment pressures

Operational Issues Multiple agencies with overlapping jurisdictions

Lack of funds for conservation

Lack of adequate technical capacity



RECOMMENDATIONS

• Use of Master Plan* for Heritage Regulation in

lieu of Amendments to the Planning Law

• Identification of other heritage zones

• Ramnagar

• Panchkroshi Yatra Marg

• Mughalsarai

• Varanasi Cantonment

• Banaras Hindu University

• Identification of Heritage Sub-Zones (precincts)

within Heritage Zones (Mohallas, historic

commercial spines etc)



Heritage Zones of Varanasi



• Areas of High Priority Protection



ADOPT HERITAGE REGULATIONS : Based on Model

Regulations notified by Govt of UP.

• Will Define Heritage (Cultural and Natural) of city

• Notify Heritage buildings and precincts as per

Listing

• Establish Heritage Committee to assist VDA is

taking decisions Heritage Related Issues.

• Membership including VC, Municipal Commissioner, Town

Planner, INTACH(as per MP), Conservation architect etc.

• Constitution of State Level Advisory cum Monitoring Group

• Will help in preparation of Development Controls,

Building By-laws and Architectural Guidelines as

per historic building character of Varanasi



Review of Existing By-laws • 50 mts around heritage building no construction zone?

• New building around heritage building to be single storey?

• Set backs

INCENTIVES

• Property Tax Rebate

• Access too Heritage Fund

• TDR

• Flexible Landuse Conversions

CAPACITY BUILDING



Heritage Related Pilot Proposals Thematic Detailed Project Reports

THEMES PROJECTS

Urban Heritage Conservation &

Development

Dasashwamedh Cultural Qtr

River front

Rural Area Development &

Pilgrimage infrastructure

Panchkroshi Yatra Halts

Conservation of Water Bodies Sarang, Pishachmochan &

Pushkar Kunds

Conservation & Reuse of Heritage

Building for Tourism Infrastructure

Chet Singh Ghat & palace as

a Cultural Center and

Jagannath temple complex

as Art & craft center,

Heritage Building Conservation Balaji Ghat, St. Mary Church

& Tripolia gate



LOCATION

Dasashwamedh Cultural Quarter

•Located in one of the three cultural quarters (Visweswara Khanda) •Central to old city of Varanasi. •Covers significant river front (ghats) and main public area of the city.



PROJECT CONCEPT & PROPOSAL

Entire proposal divided into four Sub Projects

SUB PROJECT 1 Development of pedestrian environment of the road from Goudhulia Chouhmani to Dasashwamedh Ghat. Project Cost- Rs. 8.06 Crs SUB PROJECT 2 Façade-scape development and Street facing property management on the road from Goudhulia Chouhmani to Dasashwamedh Ghat. Project cost- Rs. 1.70 crs SUB PROJECT 3 Historic riverfront regeneration (from Pandey Ghat to Lalita Ghat) Project Cost Rs. 14.72 crs

SUB PROJECT 4 Development of ‘Varanasi Sanskriti Darshan’ at the present Site of Dasashwamedh vegetable and fish market. Project cost Rs. 7.93 crs



ISSUES & CONCERN- Southern Ghats



CONCEPT PLAN



Rural Area Development & Pilgrimage

Infrastructure • Panchkroshi Yatra Halts



BHIMACHANDI -SITE PLAN

Restoration & Development of Kunds,Varanasi

Pushkar

Kund

PISHACH MOCHAN

Kund

SARANG

Kund



Proposed Detailed Plan: Sarang Kund

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE

• Historically significant in the history

of Varanasi due to the war in 1781

between Chet Singh and British

troop led by Warren Hastings.

CHET SINGH GHAT CULTURAL

CENTRE VARANASI

Conservation and reuse proposal



Entrance Zone

Food Court Craft Zone Sacred Zone

Temple Char Bagh

History Entry Zone

CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF SHRI JAGANNATH TEMPLE built in 1790 @ ASSI GHAT, as ART & CRAFT BAZAAR

Conservation & Development of Heritage Sites

Now a WMF endangered site of 2011



Pediment

Trigylph

Mutules

Regulae

Architrave

Frieze

Stylobate

Metope

Pediment

Conservation of St Mary’s Church



Thank you

Divay Gupta, Principal Director.

Architectural Heritage Division

INTACH Conservation Architect

M Arch, Conservation (SPA),

M. Heritage Management (Univ of Birmingham)

Certificate courses on conservation from ICCROM,

[email protected]

www.intach.org

heritage development plan for varanasi - … development plan for varanasi: • basis for regulation...

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