Mumbai: Restoration of British-era milestones nearly done – Times of India

Mumbai: Restoration of the city’s milestone markers, which began in November last year, is nearing completion. Officials said they are targeting the month-end for completion of all works currently in progress at various locations in the city.
While Mumbai is known to have had 15 milestones, five of these have gone missing. The BMC is replacing them with similar black basalt milestones. A major challenge is ensuring underground cables are not damaged while digging for the restoration of the milestones, said officials. Milestones were missing at Kalbadevi road, Dr Mascarenhas road, Mazgaon, near Lady Jamshetji road, as well as Kathuria Marg junction in Mahim West.
The milestones, which once marked distance, will now mark the history of the city. QR codes will be placed beside each of the stone markers, which people can scan for information on the history of the milestones. The zero milestone, which is at St Thomas’ Cathedral, will have an information plaque with a map of all the other mileposts in Mumbai, along with details about them. The milestones fan out across the north of the city from St Thomas’ Cathedral and were originally about 3-4ft in height but their bottom halves are now buried under our ever-thickening pavements.
Rahul Chemburkar, conservation architect from Vaastu Vidhaan Projects, whose firm is working with the BMC on the project, said, “It is difficult to set a final date by when works will be completed but we are targeting to finish by the month-end. We are trying to depict the era which the milestones originally belonged to, for instance, by making use of cobblestones around them, and inscribing ‘Mumbai milestone’ on a granite strip around it. There is also a plaque planned, which will have QR codes that can be scanned. The final aim of restoration is to knit all of these markers into a heritage circuit.”
Sanjay Sawant from the BMC’s heritage cell department confirmed that works on restoration of the milestone are in full swing and should be completed shortly. “Works on restoration of all the milestones were taken up together. One of the milestones originally meant to be at Lower Parel had been shifted into Badhwar Park in the Machchhimar Nagar area of Colaba. We brought it back and reinstalled it,” said Sawant.