NEW DELHI: Months after the Centre withdrew Delhi's nomination for the World Heritage City tag, the state government shot off a letter to the ministry of culture making a fresh bid for the same. It asked the Centre to request Unesco to release International Council on Monuments and Sites' evaluation report so that Delhi's dossier could be sent for the 40th session of the world heritage committee to be held in Turkey next year. 

However, sources said the culture ministry is making a case for Nalanda University in Bihar as India's nomination in the cultural heritage category. This could leave Delhi out of the race. 

An expert team from Unesco and the Paris-based Icomos visited the historic Nalanda University late last month to evaluate the site. India can nominate only one site each in the natural and cultural heritage categories. 

"This year India did not send any nomination to be considered at the 39th session of the world heritage committee after it withdrew Delhi's weeks before the meet began in Germany,'' said an official. 

Tourism minister Kapil Mishra said the government would take steps to ensure Delhi is India's nomination in the next world heritage session. The government has told the culture ministry that it's willing to rework the nomination. 

....

"The nomination dossier has identified the urban morphology of the two imperial capital cities as having an outstanding universal value (OUV). And the nomination very categorically states that the current regulations and building controls were adequate protection for what has been identified as the OUV for Delhi. It states that effective monitoring mechanisms are already in place to monitor the OUV.