Historical buildings are destroyed for housing schemes in most of the cities these days?

Discuss and give your opinion. (18th Feb Essay India)

Modernization of cities is the need of the hour as a result of which many historic buildings are being destroyed. This situation has both pros and cons which I shall discuss in this essay.

On the one hand, demolition of these old historic buildings is very beneficial to meet the needs of the growing population. Sky-scrapers are part of modern cities and they are needed today as land is becoming scarce. Some old historic buildings are serving no purpose today. They are neither safe to live in nor are attracting tourists. On top of that they occupy a lot of space. Everything has a life and if these are not demolished or renovated, these may crumble anytime and cause threat to life. Furthermore, road systems are being expanded to meet the needs of the growing number of vehicles. Many old buildings come in the way of these road systems. That is why these buildings need to be destroyed. The benefits of these changes are becoming obvious as traffic jams are becoming things of the past in these places. On the other hand, there are some old buildings which give a unique identity to a place and with a little maintenance can be used effectively even today. For example, the Sainik School of Kapurthala was the home the maharaja of Kapurthala, Jagatjit Singh. It is a magnificent piece of architecture and is now serving a very good purpose. There are many other such buildings which house important government offices or have been converted to hotels for tourists. The Umedh Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur, Rajasthan has been converted into a hotel and is a good source of revenue for the government. We would be losing a lot of our historical and cultural background if we demolish such buildings. To put it in a nutshell, I pen down saying that demolishing old buildings for modernization is definitely advantageous. However, if the historic building is a tourist attraction or is giving a unique identity to a place, it should definitely be preserved. If a building is occupying a lot of space and is unfit to live in, then it should be demolished.