AHMEDABAD: With the aim set for the Olympics 2036 bid, the civic body has finally woken from its slumber after almost four years, to protect its world heritage tag.
With a number of world heritage properties being lost or pulled down for construction of commercial properties, the heritage cell of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has engaged an agency to begin a mass awareness campaign to save these properties and educate families and market associations on the importance of the Unesco world heritage tag.
The civic body had engaged the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) to prepare a heritage conservation plan for the city, which is being delayed for almost three years.
On Thursday, the Chowksi Mahajan at Manek Chowk and several other trading guilds in the Walled City had issued notices to their respective members to co-operate with the NIUA-designated agency for the heritage conservation survey.
“The NIUA has engaged an Ahmedabad-based private agency to conduct a survey to suggest ways of educating people to save their heritage structures and building a brand around the Unesco world heritage tag,” says a senior AMC official.
One of the biggest fears plaguing the municipal corporation is a Unesco inspection that may suggest Ahmedabad to be put in the endangered list and finally remove the world heritage tag.
‘In all our promotional material we have been mentioning that Ahmedabad is India’s first world heritage city.
It will be a big blow for us if we lose the tag prior to the 2036 Olympics bid as a majority of Europeans love heritage tours,” added the senior AMC official.