UT starts preparing revised dossier

CHANDIGARH: Unable to make it to the UNESCO world heritage sites for the past two consecutive years, the UT administration has now begun the process to prepare a revised dossier.
Though till now, Chandigarh's nomination for finding a place on the list was based on the claim that the original character of the city ' as conceptualised by Le Corbusier ' was intact to a large extent, despite the drastic increase in its population over the last five decades, sources said this time, the focus would be on the buildings' designed by the master architect.
About a dozen key structures bearing the signature style of Le Corbusier will soon be identified this week, so that their historic details could be elaborated in the dossier.
Chandigarh was hopeful of making it to the UNESCO list in 2008 as there was a similar entry by France on the works on Corbusier, but it had missed the deadline due to delay in seeking concurrence from Punjab and Haryana governments, which have their offices located in the city. In 2009 too, UT's case was not put up for consideration, as it was asked to furnish more details on the buildings conceptualised by the Swiss-French architect.
The UT architecture department has already prepared a status report on the state of the heritage buildings in the city, so that effective steps could be taken for their proper upkeep by ascertaining if the original character had been diluted in any way.
Once placed on UNESCO's permanent list, Chandigarh will not only join the league of cities like Tel Aviv, Brasilia and Le Havre (France), but will also find a place on the international tourism map.