Restoration begins on British-era I Mile milestone; Kalbadevi locals invested in history of area
Jatin Sethna next to the historical distance marker below his building. Pic/Bipin Kokate
It is milestone, rilestone to smilestone for Kalbadevi locals, as work starts on the historical 'I Mile' marker in the area. This British-era milestone is located at the foot of Kanta Terrace building, opposite Mao restaurant near Metro cinemas in South Mumbai.
On Sunday morning, the landlord of four-storey Kanta Terrace, Jatin Sethna, 58, saw a group of five workers at this marker of historical import.
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Sethna, whose family has lived here for close to a century, said, "This milestone is one of the few remaining historical markers in Mumbai. It has 'I Mile' engraved on it. On Sunday morning, I saw a couple of people with some tools and bamboo, working near this milestone. I went there and asked what they were doing. They said they had permission to dig this milestone out and could show me papers and I asked them to do so. They arrived yesterday (Monday) with proof of proper permission. They are bona fide people. 'We, the residents, were wary at first, but now we are very happy that work has begun on this symbol of our past. We have to understand the value of the little visible history left in the city and do our bit, if not in its restoration as we may not have those powers or skill sets, certainly in its preservation."
There was very little to be said of preservation when one visited the site. The milestone was half buried in the footpath, history ceding in the battle against concrete, like so much else in the city. Locals explained, "The height of the road and that of the footpath has risen gradually through the years. Earlier, we could see at least two feet of this milestone. Now, barely one foot is visible."
Architect Rahul Chemburkar of Vaastu Vidhan, heritage conservation consultant for the Mumbai Milestones restoration project, said, "We are starting work on this milestone. There was a slight miscommunication on Sunday morning. I am happy that citizens are vigilant about history and they realise the value of what we have. After all, every one of us, not just experts and committees, are custodians of our heritage. If we feel invested enough to protect the heritage, it certainly augurs well for us as a city. That niggle has been dealt with, and we are going ahead with the work."
Chemburkar said the milestone's restoration project aims to "restore and develop all the milestones into one proper circuit. We will bring in cohesion by giving them a common identity. There will be a plaque next to the repaired and restored milestone. They will also have QR codes that will link to an integrated BMC portal. A tourist can scan the QR code, go to the portal and learn more about it. They will know where the next closest milestone is."
With a laugh, Chemburkar said that "to use the lingo of the times, these damaged and neglected milestones will be 'isolated' first by building a barricade around them. Some of these are almost six feet but they have sunk into the ground and shrunk. They will have to be taken out to be worked on and then placed back. This is meticulous and they need to be absolutely correctly restored."
Mumbai has approximately 15 milestones put by the English. These were prominent, rising at least four feet above the ground and had miles in Roman numerals. St Thomas Church, Fort, was marked as 'Zero Miles'. This particular milestone is the '1 Mile' marker from the Zero Miles pointer.
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