India is finally in the big leagues at least as far as tourism is concerned.
Ahmedabad just became the first city,
to receive the distinguished UNESCO World Heritage badge.
This puts it right up there with cities like Paris, Edinburgh, Cairo etc.
A 600 year old city,
Ahmedabad has been driving conservation efforts for,
its buildings as well as entire historical neighbourhoods called pols.
Many ancient havelis and traditional buildings now have been
converted into heritage hotels and homestays
with the owners taking extra care to preserve traditions.
Ahmedabad is probably one of the few cities,
to have a special heritage conservation cell set up by the municipal corporation,
whose efforts have ensured that Ahmedabad beat,
more internationally well-known cities like Mumbai and Delhi.
Ahmedabad was also the first city in the country to implement
a city development plan
that incorporated special care for heritage buildings.
While India has the sixth largest number of heritage sites
on the World Heritage list,
most of them are badly maintained with no proper access roads and facilities.
Looks like we have a lot to learn from Ahmedabad.
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