Six heritage sites of Madhya Pradesh included in tentative UNESCO list

Many important sites of Madhya Pradesh have been included in the tentative list of UNESCO. The sites included in the new list included Gwalior Fort, the Historical Group of Dhamnar, Bhojeshwar Mahadev Temple, Rock Art Sites of Chambal Valley, Khooni Bhandara, Burhanpur, and God Memorial of Ramnagar, Mandla, the chief minister said on X.

Municipal Corporation Commissioner Sandeep Srivastava said, "In 2010 efforts were started to include the underground water structure Khooni Bhandara in the list of UNESCO's World Heritage. In 2013, a UNESCO team came to see this structure. All the shortcomings pointed out by them were rectified. Now the district administration, municipal corporation administration and Madhya Pradesh government have prepared an action plan to provide facilities here given the possibility of domestic and foreign tourists and researchers visiting the place shortly."

Burhanpur's BJP MLA Archana Chitnis described the inclusion of Burhanpur's historical Khuni Bhandar in the UNESCO World Heritage list as a big achievement. She said that it was conceived in 2006, efforts for it were started in 2010, and a UNESCO team inspected it in 2013.

"When I came to do the same, they told me that there is no approach road here to include Khooni Bhandara in the UNESCO World Heritage Site. To overcome this deficiency, we sanctioned special funds from the government and got the approach road constructed along with the construction of a railway over a bridge which is nearing completion. Now the name of Khooni Bhandara should be included in the permanent list and an action plan is being prepared to provide facilities for potential incoming domestic and foreign tourists and researchers," she added further. (ANI)