On World Heritage Day today, conservationists felt that the over 150-year-old Qila Ahluwalia located in the heart of city needed a herculean task for restoration.

INTACH has prepared a preliminary conservation plan for the restoration of the Ahluwalia fort, which was built by the great Sikh warrior, Sardar Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, in the middle of the 19th century. Later, it was auctioned by the British Government in the early part of the 20th century and now it is owned by over 50 persons.

According to the present status report of the fort, which remained intact till Jassa Singh Ahluwalia stayed there, due to multiple ownership and pressure of urbanisation the fort is in a dilapidated state as a shopping-cum-residential complex. The interest to restore the historical fort was rekindled during a visit of the Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, at the beginning of this year.