New Delhi: Nalanda's nomination for the prestigious world heritage city tag of Unesco hasn't been received well, say sources. That means Delhi can once again be in the race, if the ministry of culture lifts the ban on Delhi's proposal for it to be reviewed in July at the 40th world heritage session in Turkey.

Union culture minister Mahesh Sharma told TOI that no decision has been taken to allow Delhi's nomination. "Whatever the reasons for deferring Delhi's nomination were, the status quo remains the same. We will consult all ministries concerned to see if the proposal can be moved ahead. Only after this can we reconsider our decision," he said.

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Delhi's dossier was submitted last year, but was halted by the Centre days before the Unesco session in Germany. This year, Nalanda was ASI's nomination, but sources said the dossier could not justify the nomination's 'outstanding universal value'.

"It was considered weak by the ICOMOS evaluation last year in November. Though officially nothing has been said on the dossier but indications were strong that Nalanda did not make the cut as the ICOMOS team did not ask anything about site management in follow-up questions. This had happened before in the case of Shantiniketan, which was deferred as the dossier was not considered up to standard," said a source.