Electricity meters at the heritage structure were removed on Thursday following Bombay High Court orders ahead of its demolition

Days after the deadline to vacate the 150-year-old Esplanade Mansion, BEST officials removed all electricity meters from the building on Thursday. Following the directions issued by the Bombay High Court earlier this week, MHADA officials will also disconnect the water connections and begin breaking open the locks that 64 tenants have left behind on the doors of their shops/offices.

On June 4, Justices S C Dharmadhikari and G S Patel had directed MHADA officials to remove the belongings in these 64 shops, prepare an inventory and issue notices to the tenants as well as circulate them in newspapers along with notices on the building. "We will start breaking open the locks from tomorrow and will complete the process in a few days. We, however, don't have any other addresses of the tenants and cannot send them a notice. We can only put the notice on the building to inform them once we remove their belongings," said a MHADA official.

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Referring to the inscription of the 'Victorian Gothic & Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai' in the letter, the resident groups stated that the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) evaluation had mentioned urgent conservation of the Esplanade Mansion. The letter read, "This is the oldest surviving cast iron building of not just Mumbai but of India, and an architectural and engineering marvel of its time." It further questioned the recommendation made by IIT Bombay of demolishing the building and said that IIT Bombay reports "are prepared by a single individual and undergo no formal peer review." 

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