List heritage places

If you are aware of red brick buildings built in the 19th century in the city, one man is interested in your leads.
D. Hemachandra Rao is back at his research and documentation desk for another project.
Documenting the red public buildings of Madras.
A retired civil engineer and heritage enthusiast, Rao has many documentations to his credit.

Last year, he completed an assignment on the classical bridges in our city and made it the theme of a special postal cover. Since then, he has been writing to the Chennai Corporation to make the best use of these old bridges, known for their architectural design and not to demolish them.

Rao has gone on to shoot pictures of the red buildings. And there are a good number around. The landmarks inside the Museum complex in Egmore, the buildings along the Marina and in the Goshen Hospital campus in Triplicane (‘Gosha Hospital’) and the Veterinary Hospital campus in Vepery.

He has some more on his list, including the oldest set of police stations like those in Mylapore, Royapettah, Chintadripet and Triplicane.

And if you do know of others which stand out for this unique building style, Rao will be happy to get your leads (you can call him on 98408 70172).

If you are proud of our heritage there a bit more you can do now.

Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) has invited us to suggest a listing of all heritage buildings which it will locate, evaluate and notify later.

It accepts suggestions on places which are of historical significance in terms of people who lived there or events that took place on the premises. You can also suggest buildings for architectural design and spaces of cultural heritage.

CMDA intends to work towards drawing up a Heritage Act that will protect these landmarks and provide their owners with bonuses like special land development rights.

You can send suggestions to the CMDA office in Egmore or e-mail them to cmdaheritage@tn.gov.in

Look around your neighbourhood and start listing.