ARITA SARKAR arita. sarkar@ mid- day. com WHILE all the parties involved in restoration of the . . . - year- old Esplanade Mansion are in support of saving the structure, they donu2019t agree on the cost of restoration as two reports filed by the Bombay High Court- appointed committee have quoted two different figures.

During a hearing on Monday, the advocates representing MHADA and the buildingu2019s landlord objected to the R . . - crore cost quoted in one of the reports. This prompted the court to schedule a discussion with the three panel members during the next hearing on February . . . The report filed by structural architect, Chetan Raikar states that the structural repairs would cost R . . . . crore while the report filed by heritage conservationists, Abha Lambah and Pankaj . oshi, has pegged the overall cost of restoration at R . . crore. While advocate Cherag Balsara, who is representing landlord Sadiq Ali, supported Raikaru2019s report; advocate . anak . Dwarkadas, representing INTACH, said that the cost had to be discussed with the panel members. . Both Balsara and advocate Prakash Lad, representing MHADA, stated that R . . crore was too high and that Lambah and . oshi were conservation architects and not structural experts. u201c R . . . crore is a far- fetched amount. The report ( filed by Lambah and . oshi) says that everything needs to be dismantled and made again. That canu2019t be done since it is a cast iron structure,u201d said Balsara. He added that the corroded parts that might have to be changed were on the fifth floor, and it was possible to restore them without dismantling the entire structure. . Dwarkadas, however, suggested that the experts should be allowed to have a discussion on the reason behind the discrepancy in the cost and come up with a solution amicably.