One of the historic City Gates of Ahmedabad with pedestrians and a cycle rikshaw. Getty ImagesAhmedabad: The declaration of six-hundred year old Ahmedabad as a world heritage city by the UNESCO was hailed by prime minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani.
The decision was taken at UNESCO's World Heritage Committee Meeting at Krakow in Poland. The 600-year-old city has now joined the ranks of Paris, Vienna, Cairo, Brussels, Rome and Edinburgh and put India on the world heritage city map.
A proposal in this regard was sent to the UNESCO in 2010 at the behest of Modi, who was then the chief minister of Gujarat.
"It is truly an honor to stand here with the delegation of India to witness the inscription of a city with over 600 years of unbroken history," India's ambassador and permanent representative Ruchira Kamboj said in her thanks message to the chair.
She posted her short speech on Twitter.
"For over 600 years, it has stood for peace as a landmark city where Mahatma Gandhi began India's freedom struggle. It has stood for unity with its elegant carvings in its Hindu and Jain temples, as well as standing as one of the finest examples of Indo-Islamic architecture and Hindu-Muslim art," she said in her speech.
"It epitomizes the UN's objective of sustainable development as it accelerates in its development...chosen to be one of India's first smart cities, while preserving its ancient heritage," she said.
After Ahmedabad became the first city of India to get the World Heritage City tag last night, the UNESCO tweeted "Just inscribed as UNESCO world heritage site: Historic city of Ahmedabad #India".
The prime minister, in a tweet today said, "A matter of immense joy for India!".
Shah termed it as a "proud moment" for every Indian, while Rupani said he was "thrilled" to learn about Ahmedabad being recognized as the UNESCO World Heritage City.
Ahmedabad was in competition with New Delhi and Mumbai for the title.
The walled city of Ahmedabad was founded by Ahmed Shah. It has 26 ASI-protected structures, hundreds of 'pols' that capture the essence of community living and numerous sites associated with Mahatma Gandhi who lived here from 1915 to 1930.
It is constituted out of residential settlements 'Pol' and has a specific scale of its community based settlement grouping. Several of such settlements combined together forms a 'Pur' neighborhood.
The historic city has several 'Pur' neighborhoods forming the entire fortified historic city. These various 'Purs' have its own urban structure which is self-sufficient for the communities, where each 'Pol' once again is a self- sufficient unit.
In 1984, the first study for conserving heritage structures was carried out. A heritage cell was also set up by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).
The milestone was Ahmedabad's entry into UNESCO's tentative list of world heritage cities on March 31, 2011 and preparation of the Ahmedabad dossier.
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