Ahemadabad, May 11: Amdavadis have a reason to rejoice. The city has been officially included in Unesco`s World Heritage City tentative list. Ahmedabad is the only city from India vying for the coveted status. There are over 250 World Heritage Cities across the globe, but none in India.
Ahmedabad`s proposal was sent by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to Unesco in March this year. This is the first step towards realizing the dream of getting the status. Unesco will now start analysing the various documents to find out if the city meets the different criteria. TOI has been campaigning for the World Heritage City status for Ahmedabad for the last three years. The process started in January last year when the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation ( AMC) set up a special team for preparing the dossier to be given to Unesco.
The technical team which was headed by professor RJ Vasavda and AMC`s advisory team led by the mayor Asit Vora and municipal commissioner IP Gautam finally sent the proposal `Historic City of Ahmedabad` to ASI`s director-general Gautam Sengupta in November last year. Out of the 10 criteria drawn by Unesco, Ahmedabad has applied for three, including unique architecture and town-planning, unique cultural traditions and beliefs, living traditions and literary works of outstanding universal value.
“More than the proposal, it is Amdavadis who have helped the city take its first step towards getting the World Heritage City status. Unesco has officially notified that citizens` participation is more vital towards achieving the status and it is this co-operation which has led us to this stage,” said municipal commissioner Gautam. “Our proposal has drawn similarities with Melaka and Georgetown in Malaysia and Lyon in France which are already World Heritage Cities.”
–Agencies