Fort and Shalamar Gardens in Lahore

• Demolition of two of the tanks and partial demolition of a third tank of the hydraulic works of the Shalamar Gardens (issue resolved)
• Housing; Land conversion (Encroachments and urban pressure)
• Management systems/management plan (Inadequate management mechanisms; lack of definition of boundaries of the Lahore Fort and Shalamar Gardens)
• Legal framework (Incomplete legislation)
• Financial resources (Lack of sufficient financial resources to implement management mechanisms)
• Underground transport infrastructure; Ground transport infrastructure (Development of the Orange Line Metro (aerial portion of the line))

Adopted, see https://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/1290

Adopted, see https://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/1290

Total amount provided to the property: USD 975,000, Norwegian Funds-in-Trust, Japanese Funds-in-Trust, Getty Foundation, United States Embassy in Pakistan

On 30 January 2017, the State Party submitted a report on the state of conservation of the property, which is available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/171/documents and addresses a number of conservation issues raised by the Committee at its previous sessions, as follows:

• The Orange Line Metro project has been designed to minimize the impacts of vibrations on the Shalamar Gardens. A visual impact study will be submitted as soon as it has been carried out;
• Despite efforts made by the World Heritage Centre and ICOMOS, at the time of writing this report, the State Party has not invited the Reactive Monitoring mission requested by the Committee at its last session (Decision 40 COM 7B.43). On 29 March 2017, the State Party wrote to the Director of the World Heritage Centre, indicating that the mission will be invited only after the Supreme Court’s final verdict on the case of the Orange Line Metro project has been released;
• The work set out in the 2006 Conservation Plan for the property has been carried out over the past years, for a cost of USD 2.89 million. This includes the consolidation of monuments and improvements to public facilities, security arrangements and structural monitoring measures. Concerning the Lahore Fort, work was undertaken at the Royal Kitchen where, after years of neglect, some structures had fallen and others had been submerged in undergrowth. The remains have been fully documented, ground levels lowered and retaining walls constructed. The flooring adjacent to the Sikh Wall has been consolidated, while the Picture Wall has been surveyed and its condition report been prepared in collaboration with the Aga Khan Culture Service Pakistan. Improvements have also been made to the garden planting and its water management. For the Shalamar Gardens, restoration work started in 2016 on the Naqqar Khana Complex (now the entrance) and the Hydraulic Tank, where retaining walls have been constructed;
• The Walled City of the Lahore Authority has produced a revised Conservation Plan for the Fort that is undergoing approval. A revised Conservation Plan for the Shalamar Gardens is expected to be approved shortly. Both plans will be shared with the World Heritage Centre once approved. A Revitalization Plan for the Pakistan Institute of Archaeological Training & Research has been prepared, as well as a set of training modules in the fields of cultural heritage conservation and management. This includes advice on resource requirements for the management of World Heritage and other heritage properties;
• A committee has been set up to work on a proposed modification of the boundaries of the property and its buffer zone. As displacement of people is involved, the committee includes stakeholders and community representatives.

By the time of the preparation of this working document, no visual impact study or detailed report on the progress made with the enlargement of the buffer zone has reached the World Heritage Centre. It should be noted that the State Party already reported in 2016 that it had begun the process of revising the buffer zone. Therefore, it would be important for the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies to receive a draft of this proposal, so that a technical review can be provided.

The conservation works undertaken at the Lahore Fort and the ones currently ongoing at the Shalamar Gardens are well noted. The State Party should however ensure that all such work is documented and that the necessary archaeological inputs are provided.

Concerning the Orange Line Metro project, little detailed information has been provided in the State Party’s report. The Government of Punjab has appealed against the verdict of the Lahore High Court in August 2016, which stopped all construction work within 61 meters of eleven heritage buildings, including the Shalamar Gardens and five other special premises in Lahore. However, work has progressed on the elevated metro line in all the areas beyond this 60-metres limit, and by the time of the preparation of this working document, construction work had reached 113 m to the west and 345 m to the East of the entrance to the Shalamar Gardens. In addition, the average distance between the proposed elevated viaduct deck and the Shalamar Gardens is 17.8 m from the south-west corner and 24 m from the south-east corner of Shalamar Gardens, while the minimum distance of the proposed viaduct from the main entrance of Shalamar Gardens is 36.1 m and the minimum distance from the proposed pier of the viaduct is 41.1 m. The vertical distance from the bottom of the proposed deck is 12 m from the road level.

Although in its report, the State Party argues that, on the basis of the report elaborated by the Pakistani engineering firm carrying out the project (NESPAK), there would be no potential negative impact on the Shalamar Gardens arising from vibrations on structures near the track, it should be underlined that the full potential impact of the project on the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the Shalamar Gardens goes far beyond the potential impact of vibrations.

As the requested visual impact assessment has not been completed, and since no comprehensive Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) in line with the ICOMOS Guidelines has been carried out to address not only the issue of vibrations, but also the visual and noise impacts, the full impact of the Orange Line Metro project is yet to be formally defined. It must also be noted that the HIA submitted by the State Party in 2016 was not in line with internationally recommended standards for such studies, and hence failed to address the full range of impacts of the project. It is therefore not clear on which grounds the State Party concluded that the Orange Line Metro project would have no negative impacts on the OUV of the property, nor on what basis the Department of Archaeology of the Government of Punjab issued a Non-objection Certificate for this project.

Since the Committee considered the project last year, construction work has continued on both sides of the Shalamar Gardens to such an extent that it is already impacting on the setting and integrity of the Shalamar gardens. If the existing sections are joined by an elevated track passing in front of the Shalamar gardens at very close distance, as detailed above, this will irreversibly compromise the authenticity and integrity of the property, thereby potentially threatening its OUV.

Taking into consideration  (i) the impacts of the ongoing construction work on the setting and integrity of the Gardens;  (ii) the absence of a comprehensive management mechanism which can control and monitor urban encroachment as well as the related development projects in the vicinity of the property; and (iii) the absence of any mitigation measures proposed by the State Party, it is recommended that the Committee immediately inscribe the property on the List of World Heritage in Danger, in accordance with Paragraph 179(b) of the Operational Guidelines.

It is also recommended that the Committee request the State Party to immediately invite a Reactive Monitoring mission to the property, with a view to considering whether and how comprehensive mitigation measures might be defined, and what measures could be implemented to reverse these threats, in consultation with key provincial and national stakeholders. It is also recommended that the Committee request the State Party to immediately stop construction work on the Orange Metro Line where it approaches the Shalamar Gardens.