Heritage Committee to take stock of Governor mansion

A proposal for the redevelopment of the structure has been pending with the committee for almost two years now.

“We will visit Jal Bhusan around December 21-22; it is not possible to arrive at a decision without looking at the actual structure,” said Heritage Committee chief DK Afzalpurkar. The mansion,more than a century old,stands on a 49-acre lush sprawl at the tip of Queen’s Necklace.  

Various reports on sustainability of the building,including one by the Central Building Research Institute in 1982 and another by structural engineer RN Raikar in 2000,stated that by 2006-07 the structure wouldhave outlived its utility mainly because of the heavy ingress of chlorides damaging the steel columns.

The reports said that the structure,which is not earthquake-resistant,is made of composite materials like RCC and stone masonry. The latest to endorse this view is the IIT study.

The Governor’s residence is on the first floor of the 22,000-sq-ft Jal Bhusan while his office,conference room,lounge and dining area are on the ground floor. The official residence of the Governor shifted from Parel to Malabar Hill in 1885 and Jal Bhushan was built on the foundation of a cottage where Governor Monstuart Elphinstone had lived a few years prior to that.

A proposal to redevelop the Raj Bhavan has been drawn up by the state Public Works Department (PWD). It proposes demolishing the existing structure and constructing a 40,000-sq-ft structure while retaining the pitched-roof look of the bungalow. It also recommends construction of viewing decks overlooking the Arabian Sea that laces the Raj Bhavan premises on three sides. Since the existing structure has a high ceiling,a third floor may be added without increasing the height or changing the footprint of the structure. Though the bungalow itself is not a graded heritage structure,approval of the heritage panel is required as it is located on a heritage precinct.