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Living heritage proposal for City Beautiful |
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Written by Ajay Banerjee, Tribune News Service,Chandigarh
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Friday, 07 December 2007 |
 Assembly Building designed by the French architect, Le Corbusier, Chandigarh.
In a rare honour for Chandigarh, UNESCO has invited the city to be part of the network of Indian sites on “living heritage”. This is separate from the UNESCO move to confer world heritage status on Le Corbusier’s works that mainly pertain to Chandigarh.
Other cities on the list of “living heritage” network are Agra, Jaipur and Cochin. UNESCO will provide the Chandigarh administration with advice and consultancy with regard to the maintenance of the city’s heritage. The plan will entail no financial or other obligation for Chandigarh. It will mainly focus on modern heritage and planning concepts.
The matter has been discussed among officials of the administration and they have agreed to be part of the network of Indian cities of “living heritage”. “Chandigarh’s claim of being a city of universal value is being recognised for its modern heritage,” said a senior functionary. The administration has already initiated talks with the India office of UNESCO. It has been decided to sign an agreement in this regard during a three-day workshop to be held at Chandigarh from December 18.
The activities of the network include setting up and maintaining a "cultural knowledge databank for cities", establishing an electronic communication network linking each member-city through the internet, facilitating partnerships and knowledge exchange with other cities, both in India and abroad.
Once Chandigarh is on the ‘living heritage” list, seminars, workshops, exhibitions, field trips and awareness drives will be conducted. UNESCO will also provide technical expertise to cities in developing conservation and development strategies, municipal planning and legal and regulatory framework for heritage protection and conservation.
It will offer assistance in planning interventions for heritage-based sustainable urban strategies. UNESCO will also have city-to-city partnerships between Indian cities and those abroad to exchange experience and good practices in urban conservation and development.
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