By IANS,
New Delhi : Mayors from fourteen Indian cities will focus on “heritage as a driving force for economic and social improvement of a city” during a nine-day study tour to France that begins Friday, an organiser said.
The Indian Heritage Cities Network (IHCN) has initiated the tour for the administrators.
Of the seventeen member cities of the network, 14 cities – Ahmedabad, Bharatpur, Burhanpur, Indore, Jaipur, Jabalpur, Jodhpur, Gwalior, Leh, Maheshwar, Pondicherry, Udaipur, Ujjain and Srinagar – will participate in the tour jointly organised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural organization (Unesco) and the French Historic Cities Association (Anvpah).
According to the organisers, the French experience “will provide an occasion to discuss how a city’s historic areas, traditional houses, streets and spaces can be adapted to modern living without compromising the city’s unique character”.
The participants will have the opportunity to share information about emerging challenges of Indian urbanisation with their French counterparts, and also meet Serge Santelli, Nathelle Wolberg and Pierre Bouch, who are professors at the School of Architecture, Paris and Strasbourg, respectively.
The professors along with other planners from the National School for Architectural Conservation Paris and the Ecole Chaillot have been working on planning Indian cities for some years.
The team will return to India Oct 4, after forging city-city partnerships and bilateral cooperation. They are to meet in November at Hyderabad to share experiences and foster newly developed partnerships from their tour.