Just inscribed as @UNESCO #WorldHeritage Site: Historic City of Ahmadabad #India https://t.co/ztbb8RIMiZ #41whc https://t.co/iRIMoQfAtK — UNESCO (@UNESCO) 1499529954000

Ahmedabad becomes India’s first World Heritage City; tag will boost tourism in Gujarat, says CM Vijay Rupani

AHMEDABAD: The historic city Ahmedabad has been declared as a World Heritage City at the 41st session of Unesco's world heritage committee meet in Karkow in Poland on Saturday. This day (July 8, 2017) will be remembered in history as for the first time an Indian city was declared a world heritage property The nomination of Ahmedabad was supported by close to 20 countries, including Turkey, Lebanon, Tunisia, Portugal, Peru, Kazakhistan, Vietnam, Finland, Azerbaijan, Jmaica, Croatia,Zimbabwe, Tanzania, South Korea, Croatia, Angolam, Cuba, and the host country of the Unesco session, Poland.The countries unanimously supported Ahmedabad citing a secular co-existence of Islamic, Hindu and Jain communities along with exemplary architecture of intricately carved wooden havelis dating back hundreds of years. The countries also recognized that the city was a cradle for India's non-violent freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi.The walled city has 26 ASI-protected structures, hundreds of 'pols' that capture the essence of community living and numerous sites associated with Mahatma Gandhi who lived here from 1915 to 1930.It will now join the likes of Paris, Cairo and Edinburgh. Of the 287 world heritage cities across the globe, there were only two cities in the Indian subcontinent-- Bhaktpur in Nepal and Galle in Sri Lanka. The Unesco tag will add immense value to the city and boost tourism.Ahmedabad's journey towards attaining a world heritage tag began in 1984 when the first study for conserving heritage structures was instituted by Ford Foundation. The second milestone was the launch of the heritage walk from Kalupur Swaminarayan temple. A heritage cell was also set up by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). The third milestone was Ahmedabad's entry into Unesco's tentative list of world heritage cities on March 31, 2011 and preparation of the Ahmedabad dossier by Cept professor Rabindra Vasavada.Municipal Commissioner Mukesh Kumar said, "We are officially India's first world heritage city and this is an achievement for the people of the city and the team that worked towards it."It was in January 2016 that the 606-year-old walled city was preferred over Delhi and Mumbai, which had lobbied hard for the tag.However, Ahmedabad was clearly better prepared to get the recognition, having pioneered conservation of its "living heritage" for over 20 years.