Mumbai: Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is planning to restore 'pyaus' across South Mumbai. Pyaus are drinking water fountains in South Mumbai. These were built in the 19th century around the open-air markets, and trading hubs to make drinking water easily available to everyone.
BMC has been planning to carry out this restoration project for quite some time now but without any success. Now, the BMC is also contemplating tracing down all the pyaus that have disappeared over the years and marking them with plaques or dummy installations.
As per the experts who have been working on the project around 80-100 pyaus have disappeared until now.
As per the report in The Indian Express, the idea of restoring pyaus was first initiated by Vasstu Vidhaan, a firm that works for heritage conservation. The firm submitted a proposal to BMC for mapping 22 existing pyaus.
Out of the 22 pyaus, BMC restored only 4 pyaus and all were in Veermata Jijabai Bhosle Udyan in Byculla. However, for over three years BMC has tried to restore other pyaus in the city.
Rahul Chemburkar from Vaastu Vidhaan, who spearheaded the restoration project, told Indian Express, “Pyaus are an important aspect of Mumbai’s socio-cultural history. Not only were they an expression of philanthropy, but are an icons of equality. Moreover, water is an integral socio-cultural element and pyaus express this. This concept inspired the idea of restoring them in an effort to preserve the historical identity of the city.”
A senior civic official from BMC’s heritage department told Indian Express, “BMC began the restoration process with these four pyaus, and several smaller projects were undertaken to restore them across the city. Going forward, the plan is to restore the remaining 18 together, so that the circuit can be launched. The costing for the project is underway, on the basis of which administrative approval will be sought. Because of the magnitude of the project, we had earlier decided to take it up in parts, and pyaus were restored as isolated projects too.”
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