Ahmedabad:A UNESCO team today started its five-day visit to the monuments here to evaluate if the city deserves a world heritage status.

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) had submitted an application in UNESCO for granting of world heritage city tag.

A team headed by Adel Farhangi Shabesstari, a south Asia expert of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) is here on a “tentative nomination technical evaluation mission” for the city’s demand for the heritage city tag, a government release said.

Shabesstari and his team visited some monuments in the city and will continue his evaluation tomorrow, wherein he will be joined by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) experts, AMC officer on special duty (heritage), Dilip Gaur said.

Shabesstari also met Chief Minister Vijay Rupani during which he was acquainted with the “home stay” and transferable development rights (TDR) policies of the state government, the release said.

“Glad to have received experts from ICOMOS who are on five days visit to the city of Ahmedabad,” Rupani tweeted.

“The city of Ahmedabad is in race of getting UNESCO world heritage city status and if it succeeds, it will be first city in India to get such honour,” the Chief Minister said in another tweet.

PTI