3 min readChandigarhOct 5, 2015 03:37 AM IST
First published on: Oct 5, 2015 at 03:37 AM IST
UNESCO team members with UT officers after the meeting at UT Guest House in Chandigarh on Sunday. (Kamleshwar Singh)
AS ANOTHER member of the UNESCO’s International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) arrived along with two members representing the government of India, the UT Administration on Sunday gave a power point presentation to the team. The presentation was on the management plan of the Chandigarh dossier which was prepared seven years ago.
The team from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) comprising Domic Galicia and Michael Richards along with Shikha Jain, member secretary, Advisory Committee on World Heritage Matters, and Janhwij Sharma, conservation director at Archaeological Survey of India, was here to assess the structures of the Capitol Complex as the city has been vying for world heritage status for the complex.
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UT Home Secretary Anurag Aggarwal, who was present at the UT Guest House where the presentation was made, said, “Our former chief architect today gave a detailed presentation on monitoring the visitors’ management, construction and alterations of the buildings and the facilitation. We received a very good response from the UNESCO team as the presentation showed that we have fulfilled all the promises we had mentioned in the proposed dossier much before the deadlines.”
He added, “The team will soon give us the assessment report highlighting our improvement areas. The report will then be submitted to ICOMOS which will be further considered by the World Heritage Committee for the final evaluation. The approval to the dossier is expected by June next year.”
Former UT chief architect Sumit Kaur, who had prepared the presentation for the meeting with the UNESCO team, said, “Our presentation focussed on urban planning, innovations, technological development, special integrity, management plan, and plan of action for future. We showed through our presentation that we have managed to maintain the integrity of our buildings across the city very well and completed the proposals mentioned in our dossier in six months’ time. We also presented the ongoing things and the plans we intend to implement in the coming days to strengthen the city’s tourism.”
She added that the team would get back to the administration in November with a draft report highlighting what all is required to fulfil the criteria for getting the heritage status.
The Chandigarh dossier, which the UT Administration had prepared in 2008 for submission to UNESCO, was mainly about the policy decisions regarding the management of additions and alterations to the buildings in the Capitol Complex, removal of violations in the building, risk preparedness and firefighting arrangements in several buildings.
UNESCO team members with UT officers after the meeting at UT Guest House in Chandigarh on Sunday. (Kamleshwar Singh)
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