In Two Hours, You Can Go On A Heritage Walk And Save Historic Buildings

Heritage Walks Calcutta is a walking tour group that wants you to not just discover your city anew, but also play an active role in conserving its old buildings.

You must have noticed the beautiful old buildings that Kolkata seems to have an abundance of? You must have seen that most of them are falling apart or marked as danger zones?

Founded by city archeologist Tatagata Neogi (and consisting of a team of scholars specialising in history, archeology, architecture and conservation), Heritage Walks Calcutta is a city tour outfit interested in conserving old buildings of Kolkata. And it wants to engage locals to help conserve these old masterpieces.

They plan on creating self sustainable models for these buildings which they want to convert into for-profit museums for the communities they represent. Recently they had brought a lot of attention on the oldest Parsi Fire Temple in the city which is falling apart. Now, plans to save this building include turning it into a Parsi museum.

They organise walks throughout the year – for instance, the Pilgrims’ Way {Chitpore to Kumartuli}, the Colonial Cemeteries Trail, the City of Gold: Traders and Trade Walk and Murder and Mayhem in Old Calcutta.

They conduct weekend and day-long trips like the Other Colonies Trail which explores places like Bandel, Chinsurah, Chandannagore and Hooghly.

If you enjoy history, old Kolkata trails and are looking to get involved in a long-term community project, you can sign up as a volunteer. If you get involved, you can also be part of the groups that they plan to train once they start their conservation project. This’ll help you play a crucial role in ensuring these beautiful buildings aren’t replaced with ugly new malls or residential apartments.

They also organise private group tours for a maximum of 20 people. If you’re planning a company trip, this tour will give you and your colleagues something different to bond over.