Renewed call to nominate Hyderabad heritage sites for UNESCO status

The centenary celebration of Art Deco architecture was held at Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad on Tuesday (April 29).
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Conservation architect Abha Narain Lambah has urged the Telangana government to revive the proposal for nominating Hyderabad’s iconic heritage sites, Qutb Shahi Tombs, Golconda Fort, and Charminar, for UNESCO World Heritage status.

Speaking at the centenary celebration of Art Deco architecture held at Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad on Tuesday, Ms. Lambah recalled that a nomination had been submitted in 2010 but did not progress.

“This is the right time to take the proposal forward again,” she said from her own experience with the successful UNESCO inscription of Mumbai’s Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles in 2018. That nomination, which took 14 years to come to fruition, included 94 buildings around Mumbai’s Oval Maidan, showcasing the city’s evolution through Victorian and Art Deco architectural styles.

“Mumbai became a global trading centre and undertook an ambitious urban planning effort that led to these architectural ensembles. The Art Deco buildings, blending Indian aesthetics with international influences, are a unique cultural expression that came to be known as Indo-Deco,” she explained.

The event also spotlighted the city’s own Art Deco legacy. Srinivas Murthy, curator of the event, revealed that out of the many Art Deco structures in the city, 148 prominent buildings have been identified, with documentation completed for 52 of them.

“We plan to finish documenting the rest soon and will release a book on Hyderabad’s Art Deco architecture in September,” he said. He also noted that the main house of Raj Bhavan itself is an example of Art Deco design.

Governor Jishnu Dev Varma, who was present at the event, highlighted the importance of preserving architectural heritage. “Art Deco embodies the emotional language of architecture. As the nation moves forward, conservation must become a collective effort, a people’s movement.” He also called for more events to raise public awareness about the region’s rich architectural history.