Ahmedabad: India’s first Unesco World Heritage City has joined the select club of the world’s colour-coded historic cities such as Jaipur with its mandated terracotta pink, Paris with its Lutetian cream limestone and Venice with its protected pastels. Under a new policy, buildings in Ahmedabad’s Walled City and its 200-metre buffer can now be painted only in three colours: light sky blue, cream and light brown.The municipal corporation has taken this decision to maintain uniformity across new development projects within the area and its designated 200-metre buffer zone. “Light sky blue, cream and light brown have been finalised for new govt and private buildings. For heritage-type structures, owners can use other colours for carvings other than those on the main facade,” said an AMC official. “The idea is to bring uniformity and visual harmony to new buildings in the heritage zone,” he added.The civic body has also made heritage impact assessment (HIA) mandatory before granting development permission for any new govt or private development project within 6 sq km of the Walled City and a 2km area falling within the 200-metre buffer.AMC sources said that the policy was considered after a two-member Unesco team visited the city in March to review the potential impact of major infrastructure projects on the Walled City’s living heritage. The team assessed the Kalupur railway station redevelopment, the Danapith multilevel parking project and the Geetamandir bus terminus project, all of which fall within the heritage buffer zone of the Walled City. The three approved colours are likely to be applied to those three projects as well. The team is expected to submit a detailed report to AMC.AMC has registered more than 100 architects to conduct HIAs. The civic body has also introduced urban design guidelines, a design toolkit for new construction and an HIA policy. “A special subcommittee under the Heritage Conservation Committee has been formed to expedite scrutiny of HIA applications for non-heritage buildings in the Walled City,” AMC official said.AMC has also developed a standard operating procedure for restoring the pol gates. A proposal to set up an institute for the conservation and maintenance of historical and heritage properties across the country has been approved, civic body sources said.Unesco declared Ahmedabad a World Heritage City on July 8, 2017. The city has 2,692 listed heritage properties and 382 properties on the tentative list in the areas outside the Walled City. These properties are classified as Grade I, Grade II-A, Grade II-B and Grade III, with conservation norms applied according to category. The Heritage Tradable Development Rights scheme is being used to renovate heritage properties. So far, 145 properties covering 17,519 sq metres have benefited from the scheme.
