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ShareNew Delhi: Commemorative medals featuring coins which depict monuments like the Taj Mahal and the Humayun's tomb, were unveiled today by UNESCO here at a programme aimed at creating awareness about heritage sites in India.
The programme, which aims at raising global awareness for the preservation of World Heritage Sites through sales of gold, silver and bronze medals depicting the monuments, made its debut in India with the release of coins featuring four Indian heritage places.
The Taj Mahal, the Humayun's Tomb, the Chola temples and the Buddhist monuments of Sanchi are the first Indian heritage sites that figure on the coins which are on sale, a part of which goes to the UNESCO's preservation works.
"This programme will contribute to raising awareness of heritage sites in India, and will also generate new financial support for preservation activities," said UNESCO director general Koichiro Matsuura, who is here to commemorate the 64th year of India-UNESCO co-operation.
Launching the programme, Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit appealed to the world body to give greater recognition to India's heritage, saying given the cultural richness of India, many more sites need to be on the world heritage list.
"India is large and has huge cultural diversity, but starting late we don't have the level of awareness that is required. We need UNESCO's support in getting recognition for our cultural sites more speedily than is being done now," she said.The coins are to be minted by state-owned trading firm MMTC in a joint venture with Swiss company PAMP, which targets to bring out coins bearing pictures of all 890 world heritage sites, including 27 from India, in later stages.
While each gold coin would weigh eight grams, silver coins will be 30 grams heavy, and would be sold at market prices from April onwards. The UNESCO started its World Heritage Medals programme in 1974, to launch an international campaign for safeguarding endangered sites across the world. The coins to be issued in India will be available at all ASI sites and all outlets owned by MMTC.
