The Government of India has decided to nominate Ahmedabad for the UNESCO world heritage city tag this year. January 30 is the last date for countries to send their nominations to UNESCO for the title, results of which will be announced in June 2017, and the government has confirmed that Ahmedabad, and not Delhi or Mumbai, is its pick.

Recently, the Delhi government had written to the Culture Ministry to resend Delhi’s nomination, which was abruptly “put on hold” last year. On the other hand, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis and actor Amitabh Bachchan wrote to Sharma and PM Narendra Modi, respectively, to push for Mumbai this time.

The Culture Ministry is supposed to officially endorse a nomination before it can be sent to UNESCO. There are over 250 world heritage cities across the globe, but India — despite its long history and numerous heritage sites —has no UNESCO-recognised world heritage city. The Gujarat capital, said to be inhabited since the 11th century, has 36 ASI-protected structures, hundreds of pols that capture the essence of community living and a heritage cell to implement a revitalisation programme for historic sites.