once the city of elegant bungalows steeped in history the city of joy is on the verge of turning into another indian suburb sans character scores of stately villas that lined elgin road rowdon street ballygunge prince anwar shah road bhowanipore and moore avenue have been torn down in the past decade to make way for monolithic steel and concrete structures once the few bungalows that have survived the onslaught disappear punes fate may well befall kolkata a pristine colonial town till not so long ago pune has been plundered in the past 10 years and is today an extension of suburban mumbai in kolkata hundreds of colonial buildings were demolished in a mad race to ape the development in other cities till awareness on heritage dawned a decade ago till then efforts taken to preserve heritage localities comparable to lutyens delhi and mumbais parsi districts like bandra had been conveniently overlooked but what has sent alarm bells ringing again is the blatant manner in which villas and bungalows continue to be demolished in prime locations to accelerate the transformation to a highrise city the city i knew as a child and the kolkata of today are very different the citys built heritage the buildings and the architecture from which the city imbibed a character is being brutally decimated every time i return to kolkata i see a few more bungalows have been leveled to make way for tall buildings the regularity with which it is happening is frightening we must take a call on whether we want to model ourselves on london paris berlin or any other european city that has evolved organically while preserving its built heritage or go down the route of kula lumpur hong kong and pune which have destroyed their historical character in favour of anonymity and consumer centres remarked writer amit chaudhuri who is among the many individuals perturbed by the drastic change to the cityscape in recent times the worry is not without reason in the past five years kmc has given its nod to more highrise developments in the city than in the previous 15 while the cap on floors count in densely populated pockets was 10 till a few years ago sky is the limit now sports commentator and writer kishore bhimani who lives in south kolkatas posh sunny park address recalls how elegant villas with luxuriant lawns that were there in the entire belt is now pockmarked with tall buildings that stand like scarecrows ballygunge park queens park ballygunge circular road or ballygunge place ditto with elgin road and rowdon street these were charming residential neighbourhoods with no highrises as one traveled north one encountered another kind of charm in the hustle and bustle of chitpore and bagbazar elgin road and rowdon street have now turned into neonlit commercial hubs even sunny park a culdesac has become a commercial area with a health club a music school and an art gallery now there are plans to build a