NEW DELHI: Now that Ahmedabad has been declared a World Heritage City by UNESCO, historians, urban planners and others hope that policy-makers will stop looking at heritage as a “burden”.
The historic city of Gujarat, said to be founded by Sultan Ahmad Shah in the 15th century, was yesterday accorded the UNESCO honour, the first Indian city to get the status.
The 600-year-old city has now joined the ranks of Paris, Vienna, Cairo, Brussels, Rome and Edinburgh and put India on the world heritage city map.
“This is wonderful news and I hope it will make people look at heritage differently and open up the doors to many other old cities, which have the potential of becoming World Heritage Cities,” noted urban planner and architect AGK Menon told reporters.
He expressed the hope that policy-makers and others would not consider heritage as a burden and “anti-development”.
The city of Delhi was nominated by India in 2015 for the same category but the Centre pulled out of the race towards the end of the process. (AGENCIES)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
