The UNESCO recently presented two Heritage Awards to the Nizamuddin Basti Project. The project was awarded for its conservation efforts. It was awarded with the Special Recognition for Sustainable Award and Award of Excellence.

What is Nizamuddin Basti Project?

• The project restored more than 20 historic monuments located around 14^th century Sufi Saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya.
• The Nizamuddin area consists of Humayun Tomb and Batashewala Tomb and tomb of a 16^th century poet Rahim (Khan I Khanan). These regions were segregated and damaged. They were also renewed by the Nizamuddin Basti Project.
• The project was started in 2007 by the Aga Kahn Trust for Culture, Archaeological Survey of India, Delhi Urban Heritage Foundation and the Delhi Municipal Corporation.

Objectives of Nizamuddin Basti Project

• The Nizamuddin Basti Project is an Urban Renewal Project. It successfully unified the segregated zones of the seven-century old settlement of the Nizamuddin Basti and its surrounding 70 acres.
• It integrated socio – economic development, conservation and environmental development objectives in these areas.
• It unified three major sites namely Sundar Nursery, Nizamuddin Basti and Humayun Tomb.

Humayun Tomb

Humayun Tomb was commissioned by his first wife Bega Begum. It was declared a World Heritage Site in 1993. Since then, it has undergone extensive restoration work. The tomb is placed in the centre of a thirty-acre garden called “Char Bagh”. The last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was captured by the British in Humayun Tomb in 1857.