when the countrys wealthiest resident mukesh ambani decided to build a private house on a 60storeyed vertical palace in mumbai architect hafeez contractor couldnt help remarking in any other city he would have 10 to 15 acres to himself in a congested city he wants to go high up and enjoy the view highrise apartments are rapidly taking over from colonial bungalows in most metros the whole of juhu scheme and parts of pali hill bandra the hub of bollywood in the glam city of mumbai will soon become casualty to real estate greed veteran actors dilip kumar and manoj kumars bungalows are likely to be razedsays vikas dilawari a conservation architect says saira banu we have three bungalows one of which dilipsaab is redeveloping actor ranbir kapoor recently confirmed that his home the iconic krishna raj bungalow that has been a landmark in the pali hill neighbourhood for decades will be razed and in its place will come up a 14storey structure that will house his parents on the lower three floors and him on the uppermost three with most of the areas controlled by the governments masterplan bungalows in delhi may have a longer life says a g k menon convenor intach delhi mumbai doesnt have such a complex and detailed plan and there is no scope to expand unlike delhi theres a lot of pressure on mumbai since its a commercial centre however sanjiv srivastava senior vicepresident national real estate development council delhi maintains villas and bungalows should not be allowed simply because these consume more land and help very few people essentially it is the temptation to capitalise on the real estate prices that is luring many causing bungalows to vanish from leafy environs at times there are many heirs like in music composer late naushads property at carter road bandra leading to subdivision and redevelopment says conservation architect abha narain lambah only those bungalows that come under the heritage list and are protected by law will survive real estate prices are soaring bungalows on prithviraj and aurangzeb road in delhi cost anywhere between rs 150 and rs 300 crore commercial centres are replacing bungalows in the central part of kolkata park and camac street where real estate prices are zooming explains kolkatabased architect anjan mitra people are bypassing laws and the municipal corporation isnt helpful with absolutely no heritage regulation the situation is graver in the garden city of bangalore says intachs satyaprakash varanasi bangalore has become a city of immigrants who lack pride in heritage buildings pune too has lost many heritage treasures in the last few years bungalows of illustrious families like v shantarams that were laid out at prabhat road bhandarkar road and around koregaon park area in the 1930s have been converted into highrise apartm e n t s sharada dwivedi wellknown historian who has managed to restore a few heritage sites in mumbai says temptations are far too high the owners of privatelyowned heritage bungalows should be provided incentives