Salient recommendations (for consideration) made at the INTACH-organised workshop on Urban Renewal in Hyderabad:

Constitutional amendment

• A comprehensive review of the 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Constitution of India needs to be undertaken to define the new road map for their effective implementation.

Protection of architectural heritage

• Heritage legislation is an essential prerequisite to achieving the objectives of conserving architectural heritage, and must be part of planning control.

• Heritage legislation must bridge the gap between planning and implementation by identifying new types of partnership for monitoring and enforcement of the plans.

• Compilation and maintenance of authentic statistical and spatial data of heritage areas should be undertaken.

• A Heritage Conservation Committee (HCC) comprising local authorities, NGOs/CBOs and experts should be established to approve/permit development around protected sites or within heritage precincts, distinct from clearance given for routine construction by the authorities.

• All urban renewal schemes must obtain approval of the HCC.

• All tourism development proposals must be vetted by the HCC.

• An annual report on the State of Heritage should be submitted to the HCC and put on the website.

Process for achieving architectural/natural heritage conservation objectives

• Listing of all heritage structures/elements and mapping them at an appropriate scale in the ward plans and identified in statutory local area plans of cities.

• Grading of listed elements into categories of significance.

• Defining the scope of permissible interventions for various categories including paralegal tools like standard operating procedures (SOP) and guidelines.

• Notifying the heritage list under the Town and Country Planning Acts or in a separate Heritage Conservation Act.

• Creating a variety of financial incentives to promote heritage conservation instead of dependence on grants. Often it can be met by utilising the maintenance budget of the owners and empowering them to undertake the work themselves.

Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM)

• JNNURM should be realigned to incorporate rural development to reduce migration to urban areas, and renamed as the Jawaharlal Nehru National Human Settlements Renewal Mission (JNNHSRM).

• Grandiose projects involving concretisation/intervention in heritage precincts should be examined by heritage experts.

• Reforms like scrapping rent control legislation should be modified for the larger good of society.

• Before funds are dispersed, the following provisos must be in place: Heritage regulations; notification of heritage listing; and the legal regime to implement conservation measures that is direct and easy to understand by both the regulating authority and civic society.

• There must be no regularisation of illegal constructions, no increment in permissible FSI/FAR; no widening of roads in historic areas, no exposed electrical wiring/installation.

• Mixed land use must be promoted with adequate attention paid to the informal sector of the economy in heritage precincts.