Ahmedabad: The Unesco World Heritage Committee (WHC), in a recently released status report, has highlighted a mix of progress in Ahmedabad’s heritage documentation of the Walled City alongside calls for more rigorous oversight of major urban infrastructure projects. The report outlines necessary steps to protect the city’s outstanding universal value (OUV) while it continues to navigate modern development.To ensure that the conservation goals are met, the WHC had requested a joint WHC-International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) Reactive Monitoring mission to assess progress on management systems and the impact of new developments. This mission now arrives in the city on March 17. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) had sent the updated ‘state of conservation report’, few weeks earlier for examination by the committee.The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation had submitted an updated State of Conservation report to the committee weeks ahead of the visit. In its assessment, the WHC “welcomed” the continued documentation work on the city’s historic pol houses but noted “limited progress” on two key deliverables: the Heritage Conservation Plan and revised Urban Design Guidelines. It has asked authorities to complete both without delay and to pause further street improvement projects until the guidelines are reviewed.The spotlight has also turned sharply on the development of the Kalupur railway station precincts. Terming it a “clear threat” due to its massive scale and location, the committee has requested the AMC to “put on hold” all urban planning or zoning amendments related to the project. Authorities have been asked to commission an independent Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) focused on the property’s OUV before any work moves forward.Other marquee projects, including conservation work at Bhadra Fort, the Sardar Patel Museum, and the GSRTC bus stop development, have also been flagged for review.Similarly, the Danapith fire station project has come under scrutiny. Despite a three-metre reduction in height, Unesco’s WHC experts state in the report that the move will “not fully mitigate” the project’s negative impact, citing concerns that it would further increase motorized traffic within the heritage property.
