Having dilly-dallied for years on whether to apply for Chandigarh’s inclusion in the list of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites,the UT Administration is now set to prepare its case for the same. The administration will prepare a dossier highlighting the city’s architecture and planning.

While in 2006,the Administration had prepared a dossier,it failed to cut any ice with the Union Ministry of Culture — the nodal ministry that nominates sites,which are sent to the UNESCO. Since then,the Administration has failed to present its case and no concrete steps were taken in this direction.

The Administration will be writing to the Ministry of Culture for the purpose. It is expected that a fresh dossier will be prepared to present Chandigarh’s case forcefully. Chief Architect Sumit Kaur said the Administration is set to take up the issue of getting Chandigarh included in the UNESCO heritage list.

Chandigarh’s case is believed to be fit for inclusion in the category of modern heritage. Planned by French architect Le Corbusier,the city has several buildings designed by him and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret. While these have been generating interest across the world,over the years,the buildings have witnessed a lot of changes.

A dossier was prepared in 2006 by Dr Kiran Joshi,who was then a faculty member of Chandigarh College of Architecture. However,there were problems from the Union Ministry of Culture side and the case was never put before the UNESCO.

While attempts were made later,these never succeeded. In 2008,the Administration was set to submit its dossier when the Archaeological Survey of India asked for concurrence to be taken from Punjab and Haryana governments. The buildings designed by Corbusier,including the Secretariat and the Assembly,are being used by the governments of the two states. The approval was never received.

A debate was later held on whether a growing city like Chandigarh should be given a heritage status as this would cause problems for further development. It was decided that heritage status could be sought for a part of the city or buildings designed by Corbusier and Jeanneret instead of the entire city.