HERITAGE WORLDWIDE e newsletter

UT to miss world heritage deadline again

TNN | Jan 9, 2012, 03.47AM IST

CHANDIGARH: The UT administration is not interested in availing the UNESCO world heritage site status for Chandigarh as it is about to miss the January 31 deadline for submitting its dossier in 2012. The administration had decided not to send its nomination last year as well, advocating that it wanted to focus on heritage conservation instead.

There has been disinterest about the coveted status despite Chandigarh managing to find a place on the tentative heritage list in 2006. Once placed on UNESCO's permanent list, the UT would not only join the league of cities like Tel Aviv, Brasilia and Le Havre (France), but would also find a place on international tourism map.

Sources in UT administration confirmed that no formal nomination would be sent this year to seek the UNESCO world heritage status. The move is in sharp contrast to the three consecutive years- 2008, 2009 and 2010- when the administration had tried hard to get a place on the heritage list.

In the last proposal finalized by the architecture department, it was decided to divide UT's entry into two parts- capital complex and cultural complex- with focus on 12-15 key buildings designed by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier. These included High Court, Assembly, Sukhna Lake, Leisure Valley, Museum and Government College of Art.

The housing schemes conceptualized as part of the capital project also found a mention in the proposal. The preserved character of Old Architect's Building in Sector 19, strengthened Chandigarh's claim.

The administration was set to submit its dossier in 2008 when the nodal agency, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), asked Chandigarh to get concurrence from Punjab and Haryana governments. UT missed the deadline in this process.

The ministry of home affairs (MHA) asked the UT in July, 2009, while the work on the dossier was going on, to rework its claim and go in for a safer version with focus on the buildings designed by Corbusier. The revised nomination was not ready by January 2010.

In December 2010, UT administration decided not to send its nomination. Instead it decided to accord heritage status to government and private buildings on its own and sent the plan to MHA