BHUBANESWAR: The National Monument Authority (NMA), the heritage regulatory body under Ministry of Culture, has come out with draft heritage by-laws for Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves in Bhubaneswar proposing to regulate constructions within the 300 mtr radius of the Centrally-protected monument.
As per provisions of Section 20(E) of Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, no person can undertake any construction or mining in the protected and prohibited area while permission for repair and renovation of any building or structure, which existed in the prohibited area before 16 June, 1992, shall be sought from the competent authority.
Both the prohibited and regulated areas of the caves are replete with urban constructions. While the prohibited area has private buildings and public structures like houses, ashram, schools and a park, the regulated area has multistoried buildings, housing complexes, among other constructions. Also, many city roads including NH are present in the prohibited and regulated areas of the monument.
The draft by-laws regulate height of buildings in south and east directions of the monument to 10 mtr and north and west direction at 17 and 27 mtr respectively. The facade and exterior colour of a structure should match the monument and french doors and large glass façades along the front street or along staircase shafts will not be permitted, as per the draft by-laws. Similarly, only traditional materials like bricks and stones can be used for constructions. While the site should be kept free from vendors and hawkers, it should be made plastic-free.
The site straddles the three peaks of Udaygiri (sunrise hill), Khandagiri (broken hill) and Nilagiri. It gets nearly 1,000 to 2,000 visitors per day and during the tourism season, the footfall varies between 3,000 and 5,000 daily. Objections to the proposed by-laws can be sent to the NMA by January 20.