Thursday, February 19, 2009

Race course restoration in 3 months' time

MUMBAI: Work on restoration and conservation of the member's enclosure at the Mahalaxmi Race Course -which suffered major damages in two fires last year - is set to start before the end of this month.

The proposal by the Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) earlier received a go-ahead from the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee (MHCC) to reconstruct the stands; municipal commissioner Jairaj Phatak gave a green signal to the plan last week. According to the architects - Mahimtura & Consultants - the grade II heritage structure will be restored to its former glory in less than three months. "Our idea is to just replicate the original architecture and heritage. No changes will be made to the exterior and even the interiors will only be minimally altered," said architect Shailesh Mahimtura.

The upper and centre decks of the member's stands, which about 1000 patrons, were gutted in fires on July 3 and September 19, 2008. The cost restoration, reconstruction and conservation of the member's stands will be over Rs 1 crore.

Under the plan, the roof will be relaid with Mangalore tiles, repairs will be carried out on the cement coba of the pantry, passage and sitting area. The roof will be decorated with wooden brackets and facia boards. Painted masonry brackets and plinth mouldings will also be put in place.

Vivek Jain, chairman, media and marketing committee of RWITC, said the ground floor of the member's enclosure is open to patrons. "We want to repair the affected parts of the first and second floors,'' he said.

The MHCC has however withheld permission for repair and reconstruction of enclosure 2 near the member's stand. Dinesh Afzulpurkar, chairman, MHCC, said, "Keeping in mind the new racing season from January 31, we granted permission to restore the old members' enclosure. But for enclosure 2, we are waiting for more documents.''

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Mumbai/Race-course-restoration-in-3-months-time/articleshow/4157614.cms

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