A two day meeting was held at Ahmedabad on 16th and 17th June 2018. More than 50 members from various zones attended the meeting. Representative Members of each zone of ICOMOS India and 12 NSCs presented their previous year’s activities and proposed future activities and new working groups were created. There was a detailed discussion on the SOPG to be adopted by the members.
On Day 2, a symposium was organised on the theme of Heritage Cities in India on the 17th June, 2018 in Ahmedabad supported by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, Ahmedabad and Gujarat Pavitra Yatradham Vikas Board, Gandhinagar. Center for Heritage Management, Ahmedabad University was the institutional partner for the event. As a Part of the Symposium, Heritage Walk was conducted by the Gujarat Pavitra Yatradham Vikas Board to explore the sacred quarters of the Heritage City of Ahmedabad.
The focus of the event was Heritage Cities of Tomorrow, Discourse on Conservation, Development and Management Connect. As a part of the symposium a two-day long exhibition of poster presentations on the various sub themes of the symposium, a heritage walk on the sacred quarters of Ahmedabad and various presentations on the respective themes were organized.
The keynote speech was delivered by Prof. Amareshwar Galla, an internationally renowned Author, Museum Curator and Consultant. It was followed by the speech delivered by Shri P. K. Ghosh (Chairman, Heritage Conservation Committee) and Mr. S. D. Solanki (Joint Director of Yatradham Vikas Board). As a Part of the Symposium, a Students’ Competition was organized for students all around India from the field of Conservation, Architecture, History, Planning and other allied fields related to Heritage based on the five subthemes of the symposium. Enthusiastic response was received from students of colleges and universities specially from Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Surat. An open discussion was held with public at the final session of the symposium. Various interesting subjects were taken up for discourse. Ms. Gurmeet Rai, also presented the ICOMOS Delhi Declaration on Heritage concerns from Indian Perspective during the discussion.
