CHENNAI: The fire at the Bombay Mutual Building on NSC Bose Road may not have been as damaging as the one that broke out at the Kalsa Mahal section of the Chepauk Palace on January 14. But it underlined concerns over the state of heritage structures in Chennai.The fire, like the one at Kalsa Mahal and the January 27 fire at Agurchand Mansion, was attributed to electrical short circuits. This has got heritage buffs miffed. “Why is nothing being done to take care of this? Most of these old buildings have wood in them and burn easily if there is a fire,” says Chennai historian Sriram Venkatakrishnan.He says the building was constructed sometime in the 1950s at the site of the old campus of the Madras Christian College. The MCC had sold off the campus and buildings to move to its current campus in Tambaram. This particular building was the site of the offices of the Bombay Mutual Life Assurance Society which, significantly, was the first modern life insurance company to be incorporated in India. Its architecture, like a number of its contemporaries that stand around it, is an example of the distinctive art deco style that was in vogue then. The style is noted throughout the world as a mark of the entry of the industrial revolution into architecture. “In Mumbai, which has many great art deco structures, there is a considerable push to preserve them. But in our city there is no one to protect them,” Sriram adds.
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