Following instances of heritage structures going missing, the National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities (NMMA), under the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), has started an initiative to document and list all heritage structures, protected as well as unprotected, across the country. The comprehensive national register in the form of an interactive website and also to be published as a book is expected to cover around 10 lakh monuments and heritage sites, many of which have gone unnoticed or neglected.

The project has been sanctioned a budgetary allocation of Rs 90 crore and a stipulated time period of five years from 2007-12 for completion. The NMMA will have to pool in existing documents from various sources like ASI, state departments of archaeology, municipal authorities, heritage conservationists and architects, NGOs and related institutions and compile them into a comprehensive whole.

The Mission was initially set up in 2005 under the 10th Five Year Plan but failed to make any headway. A formal launch was organised on March 19 this year and a new deadline has been set for 2012. The authorities are more confident this time, as around 30,000 heritage structures have already been documented over the last five months.

“Quite a few state implementation committees and documentation centres have already been set up and work has been initiated on a large scale,” R S Fonia, director, NMMA told The Indian Express. “Training programmes for officials working on the project are being organised and a large work force is being engaged for timely completion of the project,” Fonia added.

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