PANJIM: For years since the Portuguese regime, the heritage homes situated in Fontainhas, Sao Tome and Campal areas in the State’s capital city, known for their unique designs and aesthetic character, have been attracting hordes of tourists.
For centuries, the owners have conserved their heritage homes, but many feel that the government should step in and lessen their burden in maintaining these homes for posterity.
Armando Gonsalves, a well-known resident of Campal said that Indo-Portuguese houses are a treasure and a delight for the senses, but with rising costs and shortage of skilled labourers particularly for wooden elements in the house, it has now become a monumental task to maintain them.
“The government should come out with schemes and subsidies to help owners carry out such maintenance work because these houses share a history of the bygone era, which is now an attraction to the discerning travellers. Additionally, house tax should be abolished completely. Besides, it would be nice to get commercial licenses free of cost, other than making water and electricity free up to a limit,” Gonsalves said.
“This will encourage owners to keep the houses as they are. Private participation in creating food hubs, home stays, etc, will also add to the revenues that are desperately needed for the upkeep of these jewels,” he added.
Anthony Fernandes, who owns a 150-year-old heritage home in the Sao Tome area, said that he incurs huge expenditure in maintaining the aesthetic of his house.
“The wooden roofing gets infested with white ants. We don’t easily find local manpower which can carry out a fantastic job. During monsoon there is leakage, so it becomes very difficult to maintain such houses. And there is no help from the government. I would like to request the government to come out with a scheme just to provide us with some relief to maintain our heritage houses since Goa is a tourist destination and especially of late, we see many tourists visiting the areas of Sao Tome and Fontainhas where they just admire the beauty of the heritage houses,” Fernandes said.
Christine Machado, who resides in a heritage house in Fontainhas, opined that the government should have a clear and a uniform policy for heritage homes.
“Having a heritage home is a thing of pride. But it is not easy to maintain it. The rains especially take a toll on the houses. Some have to deal with fears of landslides. Whenever help is sought from authorities, a lot of time is taken to respond. Also, not everybody can afford to maintain the house on their own,” Machado said.
“The difficulties we face are because our heritage home is located in the lanes. It is difficult to get materials, and everything is restricted here, we can’t change the structures so I feel if government could ease certain norms and also help us a little bit financially to maintain our homes as it would be really great especially for a person like me handling business on my own,” said Gletta Mascarenhas, proprietor, Confeitaria 31 de Janeiro located in Fontainhas.
Architect Arminio Ribeiro opined that the government should come out with a policy that would help the owners preserve their heritage homes.
“The government should come up with a policy for painting the houses, it will improve the image of residential places and these houses contribute to the State’s economy with regards to tourism, so there is no such thing which the government cannot consider investing in these homes,” Ribeiro said.
He said that the government should also consider simplifying a number of its policies, which are linked to maintenance of heritage homes.
“The applications of the people applying for simple work with the department concerned are held up for months, meanwhile, those, who don’t have patience of waiting just go ahead and undertake the repair and changes which is a very bad trend. The government should be more sensitive to this situation rather than letting things go completely out of hand. The government ought to have a simplification of policies,” Ribeiro said.