City entrepreneur documents heritage buildings on social media

I am very concerned by the fast-disappearing heritage buildings in Chennai. As a city, we have no heritage policy. A very few heritage buildings survive because they are government-owned but badly maintained. Private properties are being developed at breakneck speed,” says Ashvin Rajagopalan, an entrepreneur.

He believes that if a city loses its architectural heritage then there is no future aesthetics. “I have been surveying the older parts of Chennai — mostly in Mylapore, Royapettah, Santhome and Triplicane and I hope to do this for a while. The only way one can preserve is to create monetisation options for the owners of these structures by making them into museums, restaurants or other sources of revenue,” he adds.