The Hindu : Karnataka News : Guidelines for developing Anegundi

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Friday, May 27, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Others

Guidelines for developing Anegundi

Staff Correspondent

Heritage value of existing buildings and monuments to be preserved

HOSPET: A team of town planners, led by Paul Trouilloud, expert planner from France representing the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), has come out with "broad and basic guidelines for planning the development of Anegundi village, which is considered as the "cradle of Vijayanagar Empire", and at the same time preserving the heritage value of the existing buildings and monuments.

The exercise, which was held on an experimental basis at Anegundi at the instance of the UNESCO, was part of preparing a comprehensive Site Management Plan for the Hampi World Heritage Site. Students from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, representatives from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), officials of various departments and non-governmental organisations participated in the workshop held between May 16 and May 25.

Mr. Paul, in an informal chat with presspersons here on Wednesday, said the idea of having guidelines was to prevent constructions in the area that would undermine the beauty and importance of the monuments and existing buildings that enjoyed heritage value.

According to him, 40 to 50 buildings in Anegundi village, which was of immense heritage value, need to be preserved. It should be ensured that they were not demolished at any cost.

``The existing buildings, with heritage value can be restored and all comforts could be provided without affecting their original design. Similarly, new modern constructions coming up in the vicinity should adopt a design in such a way that they would get integrated with the existing building designs and the new plan would, in no way, affect the heritage value of the existing building,'' he said in reply to a question.

Mr. Paul said the team had suggested the basic guidelines after conducting a detailed survey of the village, visiting important buildings/monuments, drawing maps and eliciting information from the people. The guidelines include among others: "which way the village could extend/grow, which are the buildings to be preserved, kind of modification to be undertaken to modern concrete buildings that have come up and those going to come up."

He said the procedure followed to prepare the guidelines would be adopted in another 15 villages surrounding Hampi. He was also of the view that the exercise needed technical staff who could take up field work and convince the people about the need to preserve heritage value.

Earlier Mr. Paul gave a presentation about the work accomplished by him and his team at Anegundi to the officials of the Union and State Governments.

He said that as requested by the UNESCO, he visited the bypass road constructed to link the bridge at Talwarghatta and found the work to his satisfaction.

Mr. Paul suggested certain modifications for the landing of the bridge.

S.N. Jayaram, Deputy Commissioner and Chairman of Hampi World Heritage Site Management Authority, sought to know from Mr. Paul whether the authority should await clearance from UNESCO to restart the construction of the bridge. Mr. Paul said the World Heritage Committee of the UNESCO would take the decision. At this juncture, Mr. Jayaram appealed to Mr. Paul to take up the matter with the concerned at the UNESCO and urge the latter to give the necessary clearance expeditiously.

The Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police Koppal District, Pankaj Kumar Thakur, the Superintendent of Police, Bellary, Halakatti, Superintending Archaeologist, ASI, Karnataka Circle, Basavaraj, Superintending Engineer, Public Works Department, among others, participated.

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