Ahmedabad celebrates 600th birth anniversary

The city on Saturday celebrated 600 years of its existence amidst the demand being raised from various quarters to declare the original area around the fort as a world heritage site.

Referred to as Manchester of east once, the city has seen many upheavals in the last six centuries. It has also been witness to historic events like Mahatma Gandhi spearheading India's freedom movement.

Though it originated as a dusty town established by Ahmed Shah, it has now attained the distinction of being the third fastest growing city in the world as per a survey.

On this momentous occasion, citizens from various communities today walked together on the heritage route in the old city area and demanded that the original fort area should be listed as a world heritage site.

City based premier institutions like IIM-A, CEPT University, Mudra Institute of Communication and National Institute of Design have already made suggestions to earn Unesco's World Heritage City tag.

"If legends are to be believed Sultan Ahmed Shah was astonished to see that the rabbits on the river bank, instead of running away, confronted his hounds in defiance," the website of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) states.

"Believing the land to be sanctified, he laid the foundation of Ahmedabad, "The city of Ahmed" in 1411," it stated.