The city metropolitan development authority has vowed to complete the enumeration of heritage structures in the city metropolitan area by the end of this summer vacation as the teams of architecture students, who have been carrying out the enumeration works, had earlier opted for a break owing to academic reasons.

They will be picking up the pace to complete the enumeration in this vacation. So far, around 350 buildings have been identified as heritage structures in the city

In the developmental rules of the second master plan for Chennai, it had been envisaged to identify and save heritage structures in Chennai metropolitan area (CMA), as the city was lacking an inventory of heritage structures then.

Subsequently, CMDA initiated an exercise to identify heritage buildings in CMA in early 2011, involving the student community in documentation of heritage structures.

Students of architecture from around ten colleges were then engaged in the enumeration work and had been submitting periodical reports after assessing and collecting historic, cultural and architectural details as well as the archaeological values of structures.

However, the work hit a roadblock for a few months, when the students had to take a break for their examinations. They had identified over 200 structures.

“We are waiting for the exams to finish, after which we will expedite the enumeration works,” CMDA sources told DC.

“Once the exercise is completed, the list will be submitted to CMDA’s heritage conservation committee, which would invite suggestions from the public and some NGOs, and then prepare a final list.

After detailed verification, the list would be forwarded to the government for approval. The government will take the final call,” said sources.

Private buildings will be taken into consideration, only after obtaining consent from the owners of the properties, sources added.